Bihar to use river silt for highway construction under Nadi Sanjeevani
The Bihar government and the Centre signed an agreement to use extracted river silt for 27 road projects.
The Bihar government and the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New Delhi on Tuesday to use river silt for national highway construction. The agreement, part of the ‘Nadi Sanjeevani’ initiative, was signed in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
According to The Hawk, approximately 83.5 million cubic metres of silt will be used across 27 road projects in Bihar. For 16 ongoing national highway projects, 24.3 million cubic metres of this material will be provided at no cost. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will manage the extraction using scientific and modern methods.
Minister Gadkari stated on X that suitable silt from rivers will be repurposed for highway building. He noted that the initiative aims to turn silt, which often causes flood issues, into a resource for infrastructure. He also encouraged other states to adopt similar measures.
Chief Minister Choudhary said that silt has reached depths of up to 10 metres in several Bihar rivers, which impacts water flow and retention. He said the extracted material would be used productively to support the state's infrastructure development.
The NHAI is currently working on 39 projects in Bihar covering 1,561 km at an estimated cost of Rs 58,340 crore. Additionally, 11 proposed projects spanning 1,982 km have an estimated investment of Rs 1,85,200 crore, where the government also plans to explore using river silt.