On the lines of Mumbai’s Marine Drive , Patna city in Bihar will soon have its own ‘Ganga Path.’ Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s dream project as it is being called, will soon become a reality in 2019. Kumar had laid the foundation stone of this ambitious project on October 11, the birth anniversary of the late Jayaprakash Narayan, in 2013.
This ₹3,330-crore project will be a 40km long, four-lane highway along the Ganga from Deedarganj to Digha in Patna. Once completed it will be thirteen times the length of Marine Drive and will reduce the travel time between Digha and Deedarganj will be reduced from two hours to less than 25 minutes. It comprises of a 7.6 km elevated structure along the bank of Ganges and is being built on large diameter pile up to 75 metre deep foundations.
Christened Loknayak Ganga Path in honour of JP, the riverfront is being constructed by a Hyderabad-based company. This will be a major boost for the state’s infrastructure development and the Bihar State Road Development confirms that a total of seven companies qualified for its tender allotment.
Navyug, the company which at present is responsible for the construction was allotted the tender on the basis of the Engineering Procurement Contract.The entire project will procure a construction cost of ₹2000 crore and till now only 2km of the stretch has been covered.
The earlier deadline of 2017 has been delayed to 2019 due to structural faults that were rectified.
