Centre approves new 4-lane bridge across river Ganga on NH-19 at Patna

New Delhi [India], Dec 18 (ANI): The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday has approved the construction of a new four-lane bridge with a cost of Rs 2,926.42 crore, parallel to the existing MG Setu, across the Ganga River on NH-19 at Patna.
The construction period for the project is three and a half years and is likely to be completed by January 2023.
This mega project is 14.500 kilometres long and passes through Patna, Saran and Vaishali districts of Bihar. The project includes 5634-meter long major bridge parallel to the existing old MG Setu, four number of Vehicular Underpasses (VUPs), one Rail Over Bridge (RoB), 1580 meter long one viaduct, 110 meters long one flyover, four minor bridges, five numbers bus shelters and 13 road junctions.
River Ganga divides the State of Bihar into two parts, North Bihar and South Bihar, and the existing 4 - lane old M G Setu is an important bridge across river Ganga connecting north Bihar with its capital city of Patna besides facilitating the movement of traffic from Nepal, East Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar and North Bengal to Patna, South Bihar and Jharkhand. Though this old MG Setu is 4- lane, but an additional bridge is now very much required due to the increased volume of traffic, which more than 60,000 PCUs is at present.
This new 4-lane bridge will provide for an arrangement of 8-lane movement of traffic by supporting existing old 4-lane MG Setu. According a statement from the central government, the traffic crossing river Ganga through the combination of this 8 - Lane Bridge will get best mobility, comfort and convenience along with safer travel. The project will greatly facilitate the traffic movement without any congestion for the road users along with socio-economic benefits to the society at large.
In addition, this project of the new bridge will generate direct employment of about 20.94 lakh man-days during construction, the official statement added.
It is worth a mention that there were only 13 bridges on river Ganges between Allahabad to Farakka before May' 2014. Additional 20 bridges have been planned/constructed or under construction in the above stretch after 2014, thus totalling the number of bridges to 33. Out of these 20 additional bridges, five bridges have already been opened to traffic and construction work on 7 bridges is in progress. Out of the balance 8 bridge projects, which are planned for construction, work on Farakka, Sahebganj, Mokamah and Phaphamau is likely to start very soon. The present New Ganga bridge at Patna would thus be the 30th Bridge on river Ganges between Allahabad and Farakka. (ANI)