Bihar Reinitiates Chief Minister Bridge Construction Scheme for Rural Areas

Patna: The Chief Minister Bridge Construction Scheme will be reinitiated in Bihar. This scheme allows for the construction of bridges of 100 meters or more in rural areas. In a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday, a proposal to restart the scheme was approved. A total of 46 proposals were approved during the meeting.

Following the cabinet meeting, Additional Chief Secretary of the Cabinet Dr S. Siddharth explained that the restarted scheme aims to ensure uninterrupted connectivity in rural areas by allowing bridge construction on rural paths as needed. The Rural Works Department will handle the construction of bridges up to 100 meters long, while the Bridge Construction Corporation will manage bridges longer than 100 meters. The Rural Works Department will be responsible for selecting the bridges for construction, with the construction responsibilities assigned based on the bridge length.

The scheme was previously closed in 2016. Before this, the Chief Minister Rural Bridge Scheme facilitated the construction of rural bridges, but it was discontinued in 2016 due to issues with the damage and maintenance of approximately two dozen bridges. Although significant progress has been made in rural road construction, bridge construction faced challenges, and many related cases have been raised in Janta Darbar.

In response, the government decided to restart the Chief Minister Bridge Construction Scheme. Additionally, the Executive Engineer of Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (BUIDCO) will also be a member of the scheme.