Substance Lacking in Minister's Metro Plan for Patna
Patna: May 12, 2008
With the change in guard in the Urban Development department in Bihar, the new minister Bhola Singh, following a meeting of Patna Metropolitan Planning Committee, said Patna would be developed as a metro city comprising nearby towns like Fatuha, Sonepur, Danapur, Khagaul, Phulwarisharif, Maner, Bihta, and Hajipur.
Outlining in broad terms, Singh said the planning committee would included a number of top bureaucrats, the mayor and deputy mayor of Patna, and Panchayat chiefs and their deputies – a recipe that is seen by many as doomed to fail from the very get go.
While the Urban Development Minister went to great pains to describe the core committee that would overlook the ambitious Patna metro plan, he failed to mention the actual plan, how he wants to finance it when there is not even enough money to save Bihar from the annual flood, or what is the timeframe to attain this lofty goal.
With a history of shooting their mouths off before even talking to experts, Bihar ministers have been putting forward many such plans since coming into power with barely anything to show for despite being at the helm of affairs for nearly two and a half years.
Snazzy malls, multiplexes, Mumbai's Marine Drive-type Ganga development schemes, mega tourism projects, flyovers everywhere and other such plans – there had been a lot of noise about development but so far either these plans have died even before taking off from the ground or have been hit with snags, a la Kankarbagh drainage and the now infamous Tantia debacle, with blames flying from all sides.
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