Thursday, 5 May 2011

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Rail Coach factory at Harnaut to be operational in 2 months

Posted: 05 May 2011 08:26 AM PDT

PATNA: The railways’ ambitious project, Coach Maintenance Workshop, coming up at Harnaut in Nalanda, the home district of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, is likely to be made partly functional in July this year. However, the workshop will become fully functional in the next financial year.

According to ECR CPRO Dilip Kumar, railways has installed a few machineries, including bogie testing machine, surface wheel lathe, plasma profile cutting and other essential plants required for the smooth functioning of the workshop.

The CPRO said that of 975 employees required, about 200 have already joined the workshop. Many more officials and staff are likely to join the workshop in a month or so. The intermediary overhauling (IOH) block will be made functional in July this year, while the entire periodical overhauling (POH) block will be made functional sometime in March or April next year, he said.

The GPT Infrastructure Ltd, which has been assigned the task to complete the civil work of the project, has already completed the first phase of work and handed over to railways five sheds for installing machineries and plants. The sheet metal shop, bogie store shop, wheel axle shop and bogie repair shop have been completed in the first phase, the CPRO said.

According to him, the civil work at the site will be completed soon. Work on the administrative block building (IT section) of the workshop has been completed. Railways intends to make IT section functional on the campus soon to facilitate easy installation of machineries and plants, he said.

The Harnaut workshop is being developed on about 113 acres â€" workshop on 76 acres and staff quarters on 37 acres. Altogether 18 sheds would be built at the workshop in phases. The special feature of the workshop is that it will have the ‘double stacked coach maintenance technology’ to carry out periodical overhauling (POH) of coaches. The cost of the project, which was initially Rs 98 crore, has been revised to Rs 224.51 crore. Railways will soon finalize the tender for building staff quarters, sources said.

It may be recalled that the then President, A P J Abdul Kalam, had laid the foundation stone for the workshop at Harnaut on June 30, 2003 during Nitish Kumar’s tenure as railway minister. The ECR is one of the biggest zones of the Indian Railways, comprising five divisions â€" Danapur, Mughalsarai, Dhanbad, Sonepur and Samastipur. It has more than 3000 passenger coach holding capacity (number of coaches). These coaches are sent outside the state for periodical overhauling (POH) on a regular basis to maintain full safety measures on tracks, sources said.

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Japan to fund National Highways in Bihar

Posted: 05 May 2011 06:26 AM PDT

Patna- Come 2015, driving along National Highway (NH)-82 and NH-83 would be a memorable experience. Reason: they would have four lanes then.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would fund four-laning of 127km stretch Patna-Punpun-Masaurhi-Jehanabad-Gaya-Dobhi road (NH-83) and 95km stretch of Gaya-Hisua-Rajgir-Nalanda-Biharsharif road (NH-82). Established as an independent administrative institution, JICA aims to contribute to the promotion of international cooperation. It also provides financial assistance for socio-economic development in developing regions.

While the four-laning of the Gaya-Biharsharif road would be done at a cost of Rs 1640.618 crore, that of Patna-Dobhi road would be done at a cost of Rs 2503.202 crore.

"JICA would provide financial assistance of Rs 1,229 crore for widening of NH-82 and Rs 1,286 crore for widening of NH 83," road construction department minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph today. The Centre would provide the rest of the funds.

Yadav said the tripartite loan agreement, in which the Centre would be a party, with JICA would be signed in 2011. The work on this ambitious project, which would provide better connectivity to places important for Buddhist tourists, would start.

The four-laning of both these roads would be completed in around four years. "While Bihar State Road Development Corporation would undertake the road widening work on NH-82, the work on NH-83 would be done by the National Highways Authority of India," said the minister.

Sharing his department's plan to provide the best possible connectivity to places located on Buddhist tourist circuit, Yadav said: "The department is working on a plan for setting up state highways for connecting Samastipur district with Vaishali. A state highway connecting Vaishali with Kesaria, an important destination on the Buddhist tourism circuit, is under construction."

The plan assumes significance as a new bridge is coming up across river Ganga. It would connect Bakhtiyarpur with Tajpur in Samastipur district.

The project entails construction of a 5.575-km-long bridge as well as construction of 45.343 km-long approach road on both sides of the bridge. Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL) has committed to invest over Rs 900 crore for constructing a bridge.

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Bihar fest to be celebrated in entire North India

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:23 AM PDT

PATNA: The year-long centenary celebration of Bihar will now be showcasing its rich cultural legacy outside the state. In the first phase, it would be held in two states — UP and Rajasthan.

Bihar government had kicked off the celebration on March 22-24 here at the Gandhi maidan, in which Bihari cuisine, its art, film and culture were showcased.

Bihar’s art and culture department, in collaboration with Allahabad-based North Central Zone Cultural Centre ( NCZCC), has decided to organize cultural festivals in north India, A sum of Rs 20 lakh has already been earmarked for this purpose.

In the first phase, a five-day Bihar festival will be organized at Allahabad commencing from first week of September. As many as 75 stalls displaying Bihar’s Madhubani paintings, sikki works, terracotta, tusser silk of Bhagalpur etc would be put up during the celebration, said director, art, Sanjay Singh.

Besides art work, mouth watering Bihari dishes like ‘litti-chokha’, ‘makhana’, ‘Magahi paan’ and ‘Barh ki laai’ would also be displayed, Singh told TOI.

A special screening of documentaries based on Bihar’s culture, history would be screened during the five-day festival to popularize the rich cultural heritage of Bihar. Besides, some of the popular artists of Bihar would also be giving their performances. A series of nukkad natak, folk dance and song would also be organized, Singh said.

After Allahabad, people in Udaipur will be able to “see” Bihar through its dance, song, documentaries, cuisine etc early next year.

“Programmes for these two cities have been finalized. We are also working out plans for similar festivals in other cities,” said culture minister Sukhda Pandey.

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Bihar’s policy leading to more births

Posted: 05 May 2011 12:22 AM PDT

Vaishali: As India finds out ways to control population growth, a policy in Bihar seems to be encouraging the opposite the Bihar government gives Rs 1400 to the family of every child delivered in a government hospital, while the incentive for every vasectomy is Rs 600.
Latest figures reveal that Bihar’s population, which stands at 10 crores 38 lakhs is growing at the rate of 25.07 per cent, which is above the national average.
The number of children below the age of six has touched 1.85 crores, that is almost 17.6 per cent of state’s total population.
Bihar Health Minister Ashwani Chawbey says, “To encourage delivery in hospitals, we pay Rs1400 for every new birth.”
Getting paid more for having a baby than not having it, may not be as lucrative an offer for us, but for poor landless labourers, who struggle everyday to make their ends meet, it’s an incentive, which indeed lures them. And in addition to money, an extra working hand for future also matters.

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Bihar kid looking for parents in Mumbai

Posted: 04 May 2011 09:25 PM PDT

He has lost track of the number of days he has been away from home. Nor does he remember his residential address or his age. But he remembers the story of his betrayal by heart. Approximately six to seven years old, little Sohail just cannot decipher why he was abandoned by his family.

His uncle took him to Delhi from a small village in Bihar under the pretext of educating him, but vanished from the Ghaziabad station leaving him alone. Nor can he believe the fact that he was once again cheated by a Mumbai-based woman who promised to educate him but forced him to do domestic work at her residence.

"I was wandering clueless on station for two days after my step-mother's brother abandoned me. When a lady who called herself Sajida offered to take me to her home and educate me. But after coming here she made me do all the cleaning and washing in her house," recollected Sohail, who is currently living with the family of the tutor where Sajida sent him for tuitions. "She had no intention of educating me but she started sending me for tuitions with her daughter since the neighbours would start raising questions on who I am and why was I staying with them," added Sohail.

However, the dream of Sohail was finally fulfiled by Christina D'Souza, his tutor in Ghatkhopar who has been guarding him for a month now. D'Souza, explained how Sajida had admitted Sohail to her tuitions over two months back saying he was a distant cousin's son.

D'Souza smelt a rat after realising Sohail was absolutely illiterate and hailed from a village of Bihar while Sajida was originally from Delhi. Her suspicion proved true when Sohail came running to her house after being allegedly beaten with belt by Sajida and told her the entire story of how he was cheated and brought to the city. "First we hid the child on his request when Sajida came searching for him. But eventually, when the entire colony gathered around my house we confronted her. Sajida did not come back after that and in fact went to Ghaziabad some days back to settle there," said D'Souza.

All Sohail remembers is that he is from the Churakutti village and his father Zaheer Khan is a farmer. D'Souza's family has been trying to reunite him with his family. "We also plan to inform the police but have been avoiding it since Sohail is too scared right now and dreads being put in a shelter home," concluded D'Souza.

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