■ Infrastructure is a major sector that propels overall development of the economy. They are the basic
systems that undergird its various components which include transportation
facilities, telecommunications networks, building construction, energy & utilities
etc.
■ Transport:
• The overall growth
in the transport sector in Bihar was 11% during the period 2011-12 to 2018-19.
• The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the transport sector has
increased from ₹ 11,236 crore in 2011-12 to ₹ 24,692 crore in 2018-19. It is
mainly on account of massive public
investment, which has tripled from ₹ 5988 crores (2012-13) to ₹18,677 crore
(2019-20).
• The Gross State Value Added (GSVA) prices
also increased by 2.0 percentage
points, from 4.6% in 2011-12 to 6.6% in 2018-19.
■ Road Sector:
The road network plays a pivotal role in the development of the economy of any region. As on 31.3.2018, India had a road network of about 59.64 lakh km which is second largest in the world after the United States of America.
In Bihar, Departments of Road construction and Rural works are involved in this sector. For the year 2020-21 the proposed expenditure is estimated at ₹17,345.00 crore. For the year 2020-21 the total amount includes ₹1,520.00 crore for maintenance of road.
• The growth of Road transport at Constant Price in 2018-19 was 14%.
• As on 31.03.2017 the length of:
- National Highways in Bihar is 4839 km (new data below)
- State Highway in Bihar is 4006 Km.
- District Roads in Bihar is 11145 km.
- Urban Roads in Bihar is 8891 Km.
- Rural Roads in Bihar is 178109 Km.
- Project Roads in Bihar is 2559 km.
In 2017, the Total Road Network in Bihar = 209,549 km.
• Bihar was the sixth-highest state in terms of building additional road length (130,799 km), during 2008 to 2017.
• In 2017, Bihar has the lowest road density, with 181 km per lakh populations while Kerala had the highest with 692.
• Road density in terms of area i.e. road length in km per 1000 sq. km, Bihar ranked fourth (223 km) in 2017.
• Implementation of road safety measures have ensured that the number of road accidents per lakh population is the lowest in Bihar (9.3) among all major Indian states during 2018.
• As on 31.03.2019, the total length of National Highway (NH) in Bihar is 5,358 km.
• The total length of NHs in India is 1,32,499 km, hence, Bihar has 4.04% of NHs. Maharashtra (13.40%) accounted for the largest share while Bihar at tenth.
• The density of NHs per 1000 sq km in Bihar has been increased to 56.9.
• The density of NHs per lakh populations in Bihar is 5.2 km per lakh populations, which is second-lowest in India after West Bengal (4.0).
■ Railways
• Indian Railways (IR) with over 68,000 route km is the third-largest network in the world under single management.
• During the year 2018-19, Indian Railways carried 120 crore tonnes of freight and 840 crore passengers making it the world’s largest passenger carrier and 4th largest freight carrier.
• Uttar Pradesh had the longest rail route (8989 km) in India, and Bihar was at the 9th position among major states of India in 2017. The length of the rail route in Bihar was 3714 km. The share of rail route in Bihar was 5.5% of the total rail route.
• The density of rail route in Bihar was 39.4 km per 1000 sq. km of area and West Bengal topped with 46.6 km per 1000 sq. km.
• Bihar had only 3.2 km of rail route available per lakh of population compared to 5.2 km at the national level. Gujarat topped with 8.1 Km in terms of rail route per lakh population.
• Parts of Bihar comes under the jurisdiction of different railway zones, viz.
|
S.NO.
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Zones
|
Headquarter
|
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1
|
North Eastern
Railway
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Gorakhpur
|
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2
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Eastern Railway
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Kolkata
|
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3
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North Eastern
Frontier Railway
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Guwahati
|
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4
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East Central Railway
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Hajipur
|
■ Achievements of Railways in Bihar
• Two Greenfield
Locomotive Factories are being set-up in Bihar at Madhepura
and Marhaura.
- Greenfield Electric Locomotive Factory at Madhepura, a Joint
Venture (JV) of IR and Alstom (France),
has already started manufacturing Electric locomotives from its Madhepura
plant.
- Manufacturing of Diesel
locomotive has started from the newly set-up Diesel
Locomotive Factory at Marhaura (Saran district), a JV of IR and GE Transportation now
a Wabtec Company of USA.
• Between
2014 and 2019, Railways built 191 km of new lines in Bihar, apart from 135 km of
doubling the track, 248 km of gauge conversion, 1226 km of railway track electrification,
and built 85 Rail Over/Under Bridges for expansion of railway services.
• Two
rail bridges over Ganga at Patna and Munger have already become operational. In
addition, a new bridge over Ganga at Bhagalpur has been sanctioned.
• The
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India is constructing two dedicated
freight corridors, namely, Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1856 km) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (1504 km), to improve freight services.
- The Eastern
Dedicated Freight Corridor passes through four districts (Kaimur, Rohtas,
Aurangabad and Gaya) in Bihar, and the stretch of this corridor
in Bihar is about 240 km. The estimated cost of this project is ₹ 6900 crores.
• As Railways safety is on the high priority, there remain no unmanned level crossings in Bihar as on September 2019. Under the Integrated Security System (ISS), there are 287 CCTV cameras installed at different stations in Bihar. The Railway Police Force has rescued 2557 children with the help of CCTV and handed over them to their guardian/ NGOs/police.
■ Civil Aviation
• The air transport is developed and managed by the Central Government, with an objective of ‘Sab Ude Sab Jude’ (Let all fly and all connect).
• Bihar has registered a massive growth in the air transport sector, as GSDP of this sector has increased from ₹ 31 crores in 2011-12 to ₹ 252 crores in 2018-19 This implied an annual growth rate of 35.6%.
• The domestic passenger traffic registered an annual growth rate of 36.6% during the period 2014-15 to 2018-19. Similarly, the aircraft movements increased by 31% annually during the same period.
• The freight movement has also increased by more than six times, from 1.04 thousand tonnes in 2004-05 to 6.32 thousand tonnes in 2018-19.
• Darbhanga has been included under Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN-II). Recently, flight
operations were started by the Spicejet from Darbhanga Airport to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, under this regional connectivity scheme. It is the third airport in the state after Patna and Gaya.
• Patna airport has already provided aircraft movement under UDAN from Patna to Prayagraj since June 2018. There are 27 airports/airstrips listed under different categories of aircraft under UDAN-IV. A solar power plant has been installed with a capacity of 219 kWh at Jayprakash Narayan International Airport, Patna to reduce carbon emission.
■ Building Construction
• Bihar has witnessed double-digit growth since 2005 in the construction sector. The expenditure on building construction has been continuously increasing and registered 34% annual growth in the last 12 years (2008-20).This growth is even higher for scheme expenditure which recorded 62% annual growth during the same period, compared to 15% for establishment and committed expenditures.
• Among all the projects, Public Works Department alone accounts for 69% of the funds, followed by the Department of Urban Development and Housing (15%) and Department of Education, Sport, Art and Culture (12%).
• A State Sports Academy-cum-International Standard Modern Cricket Stadium in Rajgir is under construction at a cost of ₹ 633.00 crore. Mahabodhi Convention Centre, Gaya is being constructed at a cost of ₹145.00 crore. A sum of ₹ 301.40 crore is being spent on building Budh Samyak Darshan Sangrahalaya and Smriti Stup at Vaishali. In addition, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Science City is being developed at a cost of ₹ 397.00 crore in Patna. A planetarium is being constructed in Darbhanga at a cost of ₹ 164.00 crore.
■ Telecom Network
India is presently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market, with 118 crore subscribers.
• The Overall Tele-density of India stood at 86.22% and eight States have less tele-density than the all India average at the end of September 2020.
• Delhi service area has maximum tele-density of 273.14.
• Bihar service area has the minimium tele-density of 52.60 at the end of September 2020.
(Telephone density/ Teledensity is the Number of telephone connections (fixed lines and mobile phone subscribers) per 100 inhabitants within a geographical area.)
 |
| Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) |
■ Postal Network
The postal network of India is the largest in the world, with altogether 1.55 lakh post offices.
• A total of 9084 post offices were in Bihar as of March 2018. Out of this, 8625 (94.9%)
were in rural areas and 459 (5.1%) in urban areas.
• In terms of share in the all-India postal network, Bihar’s share stands at 5.8%, compared to the population share of 8.6%.
• Bihar accounted for 4.6% of the total number of letterboxes in the country. The top three states are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, accounting for 29% of the letterboxes.
• Many financial services are provided through the vast postal network which includes deposit, investments, Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and payments under other government financial schemes (social benefit payments, MGNREGA payments, and social security pension schemes).
• There are 272 lakh account holders in Post Office Bank (POB) in Bihar, which constituted 7.3% of the all-India total.
• In terms of the total outstanding balance in the Post Office Bank, Bihar accounts for ₹92,810 crores, constituting 15.5% of the all-India total.
• Apart from these services several other services like Passport Services, E-Commerce and projects like DARPAN (Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India) are undertaken by the Department of Post.
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