ADB to lend $300 mn more for road development in Bihar

PATNA: Asian Development Bank, or ADB, is ready to channel a fresh $300 million loan to Bihar for developing state roads which were one of the keys to Nitish Kumar’s latest electoral success.

This will be the second loan from ADB for Bihar’s road development. Under this phase, the state has decided to construct four state highways covering 354 km with an estimated cost of $368.26 million (Rs 1,653.5 crore). In 2008, the multilateral funding agency had provided the state $420 million to build nine state highways covering 820 km.

“Our mission is to develop state highways so that one can travel to Patna from any part of Bihar within six hours,” the state’s road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit told ET.

Bihar has developed around 3,300 km of state highways and major district roads over the past five years and political observers said this has helped Nitish Kumar-led JD (U)-BJP government return to the power with an overwhelming majority.

To carry the development forward, the government is slated to sign an pact with ADB for the new tranche of loan in the third week of December. ADB typically gives development loans to the Centre, which, in turn, extends it to state governments in local currency. The state bears the foreign exchange risk on such loans.


(The correspondent was in Bihar on invitation from ADB)