Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday inaugurated one of the two rail-cum-road bridges on Ganga in a ceremony held at Bandra. The two bridges are in Patna and Munger. Prabhu inaugurated the Patna-Sonepur-Digha Ghat bridge, while a parallel function was held at Pataliputra station near Patna with several ministers in attendance. During the function, Prabhu flagged off the first trial locomotive on the Patna bridge.
The bridges, under construction for the past 10 years, were first envisaged during the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government. Sources said the electoral gain from the quick commissioning of these bridges is not lost on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The bridges also hold huge economic potential for the state, as they will increase the capacity to handle road traffic and give new railway connections to various parts of the state.
The bad news for the BJP, however, is that the bridges might not get commissioned for rail traffic any time soon. Some 205 families, who were displaced due to the Patna bridge, have to be rehabilitated while the Munger bridge work displaced around six families in Sabdalpur area. "The bridges will get their approach roads only after the rehabilitation issue is taken care of. It might take a few more months, though top officials from the East Central Railway (ECP) are doing their best," said a senior railway official.
During the function, Prabhu also inaugurated the electrification of the 132-km Manpur-Tilaiya-Rajgir-Bakhtiyarpur section near Gaya. The work has been at a standstill since 2010, when the then railway minister Mamata Bannerjee had announced the feasibility study for electrification of the section during her railway budget speech. The project is slated to be completed by December 2016, said ECR chief spokesperson Arvind Rajak.
