| On the elections front, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (U) has not done badly. The recent municipal elections, technically fought along non-party lines, have seen a loss of face for some sitting MLAs, while there are signs that the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal combine could recover ground in the mayoral elections. |
| But the ruling JD(U)-BJP has won all the by-elections of all descriptions, whether it was the Manihari Assembly seat held by the Congress (December 2006) or retaining the Bhagalpur and Nalanda Lok Sabha seats (November 2006). |
| Therefore, till the 2009 General Election, Nitish is comfortably placed to concentrate on governance. But after 15 years of very little governance, expectations are high. Kumar's efforts are therefore, to put some visible, tangible evidence of governance in place, while struggling to set right behind-the-scenes processes that will sustain development. |
| Roadbuilding is one such big success story in Bihar. Since independence, Bihar has been spending on an average Rs 50 to 60 crore a year on building new roads. In the last financial year alone, the government spent Rs 2,200 crore on creating 4,500 km of major district roads. |
| The Asian Development Bank has agreed to fund the two-laning of around 1,000-km of state highways. An ADB team arrived in Patna on Tuesday May 29 to discuss the project. Four-laning of the National Highways is going on under the central programme, but the pace of work is so fast that the funding can't keep pace with it "" the Centre gave the Bihar government Rs 70 crore in the last fiscal, which was spent by December 2006. |
| The state sought more money but rather than delay the work, sanctioned the money from its own accounts. Rs 243 crore was spent last year on upgrading national highways against the sanctioned amount of Rs 104 crore. |
| Bihar's roads secretary RK Singh says his problem is not tenders, the pace of work or equipment "" all this is under control. "My biggest constraint now is bitumen. In May 2006, I had given a work schedule to the IOC and HP for a weekly supply of the bitumen we would need. They scoffed at us "" they thought we won't be able to work so fast, so they cut our plan by half. But there is so much demand that the moment the rakes come, they are sold out. The contractor is in a fix. He is ready to carry out the work and needs 10 trucks of bitumen and he gets only 2." |
| Singh says the work culture has changed. Tenders have been awarded, contractors appointed and a work plan approved. If there are delays, the contractors pay a penalty to the state government "" Rs 10 crore was collected last year. If work is completed ahead of schedule, there are incentives. |
| "By December this year, Bihar's National Highways will be good enough to afford vehicles a speed of 70 to 80 km per hour," Singh says. An international consultant for quality control has been appointed in addition to the state's quality control laboratories. |
| Roads are a visible sign that the government is working on. This appears to be having a demonstration effect. Fresh from his tour of Australia and Singapore, Finance Minister Sushil Modi announced yesterday that the Bihar government would set up an Overseas Placement Cell to help Biharis seek jobs and education abroad. |
| The US embassy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bihar Industries Association to set up a library in Patna, called the American Corner. The British Council Library in the city closed down about five years ago and the American Library was wound up three decades ago. |
| A new university at Nalanda will be set up with the help of a panel headed by Amartya Sen, Sushil Modi announced on Saturday. Sugata Bose from Harvard University, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo and a minister each from China and Japan will be other members. |
| All this will, Kumar and his colleagues hope, address some of the ambitions of the Bihar urban elite so that they are left free to chase the other thing that the state needs: money. |
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