Patna,(BiharTimes): Even as the Patna high court recently  feared that India may lose war with China because of the  failure to repair the Mahatma Gandhi Setu the road  construction minister of Bihar Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias  Lallan Singh, said on Friday that this bridge over Ganga  would not collapse despite its poor condition at several  points. Not only would it be kept open for smaller vehicles  but within a week, heavy vehicles with a load of 15 tonnes,  would be allowed over it. 

The minister on Thursday (Dec 4) wrote two letters to the  Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari  expressing, among other things, disappointment over not  getting the Centre’s help to repair the Setu.

The first letter drew the attention towards the repair of  Setu while the second talked about the delay in construction  of road-cum-rail bridge between Digha in Patna and Sonepur in  Saran district.

Lallan said he had written that in a meeting between the then  chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar and the then Union  transport minister C P Joshi, on June 26, 2012, it was agreed  that the work of repair of Gandhi Setu (which is part of NH- 19) and construction of a proposed new bridge from Kacchi  Dargah in Patna and Bidupur in Vaishali district be clubbed  as single project. The understanding was that state 
government would take all necessary measures for carrying out  the maintenance and repair of the existing bridge and its  approaches for six years and necessary funds would be  provided by the Union ministry of road, transport and  highways.

However, the minister said, the Government of India backed  out of its commitment.  According to him there had been a perception that it is the  responsibility of the Bihar government to maintain and repair
Gandhi Setu. But this notion needs to be dispelled.  Lallan said that the state government thus decided to begin  work with the the assistance of the Asian Development Bank  (ADB).

The ADB had agreed upon providing a loan of Rs 5,000 crore  and the state cabinet gave approval to give Rs 1,800 crore as  the state share.

In the second letter the minister had again blamed National  Highway Aurthority of India for not taking up the  construction of the approach road of Digha-Sonepur bridge. The Bihar government has repeatedly accused the present NDA  government of doing nothing in this regard though Nitin  Gadkari made promise in this regard when he visited the state  four months back.