ARA-BAGAHA GREENFIELD CORRIDOR: PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS, GOVERNMENT SILENCE

ARA-BAGAHA GREENFIELD CORRIDOR: PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS, GOVERNMENT SILENCE

17-AUG-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA-------------------------In February 2025, the Bihar government announced with great fanfare that a 225 km long Narayani-Ganga Greenfield Corridor would be built. This corridor will start from Patar (Ara) in Bhojpur and go straight to Bagaha and will connect with the Patna-Ara-Sasaram (NH-119A) high-speed corridor, connecting North and South Bihar via a new route.

But today is August 2025—six months have passed, and there is no concrete progress in this plan. Neither approval of DPR, nor land acquisition process, nor green signal from the central government. The question arises that after all, the public is only told the announcement or will they also get a road?

Why is this corridor necessary?

Today, to go from North Bihar to Patna/Ara, people have to bear the brunt of bridges like Koilwar and Chapra. The construction of this corridor will provide a new option. Districts like West Champaran, Siwan, Gopalganj and Bhojpur will get a new direction of development. Construction of new bridges on Gandak and Ganga will make access to business, education and health services easier.

Government's silence, public's restlessness. The public is asking—When Patna–Ara–Sasaram corridor can get approval in March 2025, then why is Ara–Bagaha corridor in cold storage? Will this project remain just an election announcement? Will the dream of the people of western Bihar be left incomplete? The government should now understand that the politics of development should not be just on paper, but on the ground.

If the Ara–Bagaha Greenfield Corridor is not approved and budgeted immediately, then it will become another incomplete story of one of the big development projects of Bihar.