Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday, 30 November, inaugurated the Digha-AIIMS elevated road, providing easier access to the medical institution to millions of people from Chhapra, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali as well as all northwestern districts of Bihar.
The opening of this flyover will also help reduce crippling traffic jams within Patna.
A Relief For Patients
In the absence of this flyover, lakhs of people from several districts of north Bihar had to face huge traffic jams in order to come to Patna for treatment at AIIMS. But now, there will be a significant reduction in traffic within the city and people will be able to comfortably reach AIIMS from any city of north Bihar.
The distance between Patna and Muzaffarpur is roughly 90 kilometers. Before the construction of this flyover, it used to take four to five hours for people to cover this distance. But now, people will save at least two hours of journey time.
Many a times, patients travelling from Muzaffarpur or Chhapra would succumb to their ailments because of traffic jams. The new flyover will provide relief in this regard as well.
Shorter Travel Time
Similarly, Chhapra is located 60 km from Patna. Before the construction of this flyover, it would take at least 2 hours to reach AIIMS. People first had to get down from Digha Sonepur flyover and go to the city from there, but now the flyover will reach AIIMS directly, which will save a lot of time.
People of north Bihar and Patna have been been struggling for the last several years in their commute because of traffic jams, as the vehicles coming from north Bihar had to pass through the city.
It will now be easier for vehicles coming from JP Sethu to go to north Bihar and from north Bihar to places like Naubatpur, Aurangabad etc.
Construction Began in 2013 With Budget of 1,298 Cr
Project manager Shashi Ranjan, on being asked about the delayed construction of the flyover, said that there were a lot of obstacles in the construction of the 106-meter wide Road Over Bridge (RoB).
There were also some technical difficulties in the construction of the railway over bridge being built in Khagaul. There were some issues in getting approval from the railways, which led to the delay, he said.
Construction of this flyover started in 2013
Rs 1,298 crore were spent on construction
The length of this elevated road is 8.5 km
The flyover was constructed by Gammon India Ltd
Ranjan also said that talks are underway for extending the flyover, to connect it to Bailey Road by next year. If this happens, people of Patna city will be largely relieved from the increasing problem of traffic jams, he added.
(This piece was originally published in Quint Hindi and has been translated and republished with permission. Read the original story here.)
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