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Patna,(BiharTimes): The Bihar government is quick in taking credit for their construction. But the truth is that it is hampering their early completion by not providing land notwithstanding repeated requests from the railways.

The construction of several Rail Over Bridges (ROBs) in Patna and other places are being delayed because they are yet to get land for the alignment.
Besides, railway officials say that work on none of the rail projects taken up during the reign of Lalu Yadav as the railway minister could start because the state government had failed to provide land.

The ROBs are being constructed by the Indian Railways Construction Company Ltd (IRCON) with the view to removing traffic jam and congestion and avoid railway crossings.

The Mithapur ROB near Patna railway station, being built at an estimated cost of Rs 70 crore by the IRCON, is a case in point. The railways has already approached the state government for acquiring land to complete it.

However, the lackadaisical approach of the state government has delayed its completion, which was schedule in March 2009.
Reports say that a major work on this ROB has been held up due to non-acquisition of the requisite land.

The railways, according to reports, urgently needs about six acres of land from the state government to carry out alignment work on the ROB. That apart, the railways requires a portion of the Patna GPO boundary wall and about four-metre wide BSEB land on the southern-end of the ROB to complete the alignment work.

This four-lane ROB will ease the flow of traffic and remove congestion. Besides, there will be no waste of time at the railway crossing.
Media reports say that work on ROBs at Gaya, Dehri-on-Sone and Sasaram has also been affected because of the delay in getting the requisite land from the state government for building alignment of bridges. The railways has completed all formalities to acquire land for these ROBs.

An IRCON official was quoted in the Times of India as saying that “the delay in acquiring land has virtually stalled the pace of work on these bridges.”
Apart from ROBs several ambitious projects of the railways, including the Neora-Daniyawan third line, a diesel locomotive manufacturing factory at Marhaura in Saran district, an electric locomotive manufacturing factory at Madhepura and a DMU maintenance workshop at Sonepur, are being delayed due to non-acquisition of the requisite land from the state government.

A Railway Board official told the daily that the railways has already deposited the requisite money with the state government as the tentative cost of the land. These projects will gather momentum only after obtaining land from the government.
There is no paucity of funds for completing these projects in Bihar, he added.

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