Bihar CM Nitish Kumar opens many new government buildings, praises BCD engineers

PATNA: Chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar on Saturday inaugurated 264 new government buildings worth Rs 1,725 crore, including Bapu Art Gallery at the Bapu Sabhagar here, through remote control from his official residence here.


He also laid foundation stones for another 99 buildings worth Rs 2,685 crore of the building construction department (BCD).

Thus, a total of 363 buildings worth Rs 4,410 crore of the BCD were launched. BCD minister Ashok Choudhary presided the event.

The CM also inaugurated newly constructed buildings of the district transport offices (DTOs) in five district headquarters – Aurangabad, Saharsa, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Jamui. He also distributed new vehicles and subsidy amounts among 1,000 beneficiaries of the Mukhya Mantri Gram Parivahan Yojna (MMGPY). The state government provides a subsidy of up to Rs 1 lakh or 50% of the vehicle cost to each beneficiary on purchase of a three-wheeler or four-wheeler under the MMGPY.

The CM also laid foundation for the Bihar State Road Transport Corporation’s headquarters building, including its campus in the state capital, Patna DTO’s building and altogether 500 bus stops in different parts of the state.

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and around 20 state ministers participated in the event through videoconferencing.

Speaking on the occasion, the CM stressed the need for continuous and proper maintenance of all the buildings and asked the state’s chief secretary Deepak Kumar to bring out a ‘comprehensive maintenance policy for the government buildings’ on the very pattern of the state’s road maintenance policy.

The CM said buildings of altogether 28 departments were either inaugurated or foundations for the new buildings laid on Saturday.

Nitish said the BCD engineers hardly had any work during the RJD regime in the state. He said the BCD’s total annual budget in the financial year 2004-05 was just Rs 22.53 crore. “One can easily imagine what kind of work the department’s engineers and officers were doing with such a meagre amount. The BCD’s annual budget in FY 2019-2020 was Rs 2,650 crore. The increase in the department’s annual budget shows how many new buildings are now being constructed,” the CM said.

Highlighting the ‘robustness’ of the Patna-based Bapu Sabhagar, which was opened two years back, the CM said the the building was built on a steel structure. “Altogether 22,000 metric tonne of steel, more than what used in the world famous Eiffel Tower, was used in the construction of the Bapu Sabhagar,” he said.