Bihar Sees 15-Fold Jump In Data Consumption

Patna: Bihar has seen a 15-fold jump in data consumption in the last five years as the state goes big on developing infrastructure, investing in connectivity and building rail and road networks, its Chief Secretary Amrit Lal Meena said.

Bihar has witnessed unprecedented growth in infrastructure development with its road density being the third largest in India that facilitates trade and transport. Its electricity generation has expanded from 700 MW to 7,000 MW while the state has built IT parks and data centres are in the offing.

Infrastructure is the focus, Meena, the top-most bureaucrat in the Bihar government, said adding massive investments have gone into building infrastructure in the last two decades. “If I talk of the road sector, we have a network of 1.2 lakh kilometres of rural roads. It has been built com-pletely during the last 20 years. We have a very strong network of national highways, state high-ways and major district roads.

And I am happy to share with you that during the last 10 years, the highway network, both the national highway and the state highway has seen tremendous growth,” he said. The state government in last year’s budget announced four express highways - Siligri to Gorakhpur, Raksol to Haldia, Patna-Purnia, then spur roads from Amas-Darbhanga expressway to Rajgir, Bodh Gaya and Darbhanga. Besides, there are ongoing projects of Varanasi-Kolkata, 153 kilometres of which passes through four districts of Bihar. “So we have a highway plan. There is a network of, you know, east-west highway, north-south highway. So there is a grid,” he said.

“So with all these projects upcoming and ongoing, I think from any point in the state, one would be able to get a four-lane highway by travelling about 50 kilometres”. He cited the example of Ganga river having just four bridges prior to 2005. “In Bihar, Gan-gaji is 400 kilometres. In 400 kilometres, only four bridges with only 10 lane width. The Chief Minister took up massive planning and now we are having either constructed or under construction bridges at 14 locations and the lane width would be 70. 10 versus 70”.