The cabinet on Wednesday approved the construction of a four-lane greenfield high-speed corridor in Bihar with a total cost of Rs 4,447.38 crore. The project, which will develop access-controlled Mokama-Munger section of the Buxar-Bhagalpur corridor, is going to support average vehicular speeds of 80 kilometre per hour (kmph) that will substantially reduce the overall travel time, while offering safer, and uninterrupted connectivity for both passenger and freight vehicles.
Boost to industrial and logistics growth
The project is expected to boost freight traffic on the Munger-Bhagalpur belt which is emerging as a key industrial region focussing on ordinance factory, food processing, locomotive workshop and related logistics and warehousing hubs.
The project will be executed through the hybrid annuity model (HAM), which is one of three popular models for executing national highway projects. Under HAM, the government’s funding support is combined with private firms’ build, operate, transfer (BOT) model where both the parties distribute the obligations and risks of a project.
Rail line doubling to raise capacity
In addition, the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) has approved the doubling of a single railway line section across Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal with a total cost of Rs 3,169 crore. The doubling of the 177-km Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat rail line is expected to improve mobility for passenger and freight services.
Headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CCEA’s approval will provide a fillip to the freight traffic as the project is planned on the PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan which aims to enhance multi-modal connectivity and logistic efficiency through integrated planning.
The doubling of the line will ensure faster movement of key commodities such as coal, cement, fertilizers, bricks and stones. The proposed project will augment the freight capacity of the railways by 15 MTPA (million tonnes per annum). In FY25, the Indian Railways‘ freight loading stood at 1,617.38 MT, which was 1.68% higher than the previous financial year.
“Project section also provides rail connectivity to prominent destinations such as Deoghar (Baba Baidyanath Dham), Tarapith (Shakti Peeth) attracting pilgrims and tourists from across the country,” the official statement said.
This is the eighth multi-tracking project approval by CCEA since last August. Before this, the cabinet had approved projects to add new rail lines and doubling of the existing lines.
