Focus Urban Bihar: Nitish does some plain talking!

Patna: according to reports, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday made some frank admissions about the quality of urban life in Bihar and the state of the Bihar towns. Not mincing words, he pointed out the two outstanding issues of urbanism in Bihar – that of unplanned and unregulated growth in the towns, specifically Patna. Second, he rued the fact that everyone in Bihar wants to own a house in Patna or has to rush to Patna for the smallest of jobs. Nitish gave the example of Uttar Pradesh which has many urban centres and has not developed in a Lucknow-centric pattern. Bihar’s excuse in this regard may be a historical one – UP with its two centres of gravity – western and eastern Uttar Pradesh has old cities like Varanasi and Allahabad, whereas proximity to Delhi led to the growth of Meerut and NOIDA etc. Nevertheless as the CM said, ‘better late than never’!

The occasion for the CM’s remarks on urban Bihar was inauguration of a bouquet of 10 urban schemes worth Rs 617.23 crore – five for water supply [three in Patna and one each in Bodhgaya and Muzaffarpur], one for drainage at Rajgir and four for sewage at Bodhgaya, Begusarai, Buxar and Hajipur. Nitish said on the occasion ‘We have to expand towns and cities over the next three or four years in a way that people can actually see the perceptible change in urban development. The people will appreciate this change.’

Notably, the above schemes are to be implemented by Bihar Urban Development Corporation Ltd (BuidCo) and completed within 12 to 24 months. While speaking on the unplanned and haphazard construction in the state capital, Nitish said that new building bye laws should be in place by the year end so they are put into force by 2012. Commenting on the hazards of unplanned construction, Nitish issued a warning he has uttered before – ‘High-rise buildings are constructed in narrow lanes. Patna is in a seismic zone, so these buildings can be dangerous in times of earthquakes or other calamities.’