Bakarpur-Manikpur national highway in Bihar gets nod from centre

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has approved a 33 km stretch of four-lane national highway between Bakarpur (in Saran) and Manikpur in Bihar. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already started the land acquisition process to convert the existing 104 km stretch of state highway between Manikpur and Areraj in East Champaran into a four-lane highway. The road is being improved as part of the central government's Bharatmala Pariyojna, which will connect many important religious sites. Once the four-lane road is completed, reaching Patna and AIIMS from any part of the state's northwestern towns will take only two to three hours. NHAI has set aside nearly Rs 600 crore to acquire land and construct the road, which will include one reinforced concrete cement (RCC) bridge on the river Gandak. The NHAI has begun land acquisition in the East Champaran and Muzaffarpur districts to widen a 104 km road from Mankipur to Areraj via Sahebganj, which will eventually connect to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and Kathmandu in Nepal. The NHAI has set aside Rs 1,500 crore to make the Manikpur-Areraj stretch four-lane. RCD officials told the media that the state government had already built a four-lane road from Bakarpur to JP Setu in Saran. An executive engineer said the JP setu on the Ganga is connected by a four-lane elevated road that ends near Patna AIIMS on the NH 138. NH138 connects Palamu district in Jharkhand with Pali in Patna. Those travelling from north Bihar via the new NH will be able to connect to other NHs in UP, the North East districts, and Jharkhand. Image Source Also read: Bundelkhand Expressway to be operational by the end of 2021 Also read: Odisha govt to widen 174.5 km Biju Expressway into four lane