Speaking at the inaugural session of the day long national-level conference on “Developing Urban Economies of Bihar” in Patna on Friday Urban Development and Housing Minister Prem Kumar said
the state government would like to include all 42 municipal bodies and 86 Nagar Panchayats in this integrated development plan of towns and cities in the next phase. The department has taken initiatives to make larger cities and town attractive for private sector investment.

The urban development and housing department organized the conference as a part of the ongoing SPUR, in collaboration with the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), and the International Growth Centre, UK.

The minister said as a part of SPUR, an urban economic survey was conducted. According to this survey 49% towns want to develop as agro-processing and trading hubs, 15% as educational hubs, 11% as tourism-based towns and another 11% see their future as industrial towns, the minister said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was supposed to inaugurate the conference, but he could not attend it. His message was read out, in which he said that the workshop would provide a platform to share the Bihar story and learn from others on managing planned and inclusive urbanization.

He said the vision of Bihar is to develop cities and towns as growth centres, promoting competitive economic value chains and balanced spatial and economic development leading to household income growth and reduction in poverty.

DFID, India head Sam Sharpe also took part in the meet. He expressed satisfaction with the pace of work in all ongoing projects in Bihar. DFID is working in 29 cities of Bihar, which will continue for another four years.