Nitish Kumar inaugurates 264 new buildings, including Bapu Art Gallery at Patna-based Bapu Sabhagar

PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday inaugurated a total of 264 new government buildings worth Rs 1,725.71 crore including Bapu Art Gallery at the Bapu Sabhagar, through remote control from his official residence here.
He also laid foundation stones for another 99 buildings worth Rs 2,685.84 crore of the building construction department (BCD) from the same event. Thus, a total 363 buildings worth Rs 4,411.55 crore under the purview of the BCD were launched. The BCD minister Ashok Choudhary presided over the event.
From the same programme, the CM also inaugurated newly constructed buildings of the district transport offices (DTO) in five district headquarters namely Aurangabad, Saharsa, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Jamui. He also distributed new vehicles and subsidy amounts among 1,000 beneficiaries of the Mukhya Mantri Gram Parivahan Yojna (MMGPY). The state government provides a subsidy up to Rs one lakh or 50% of the vehicle cost to each beneficiary on purchase of a three-wheeler or four-wheeler under the MMGPY.
The CM also laid foundation stones for the Bihar State Road Transport Corporation’s headquarters’ building including its campus in the state capital, Patna DTO’s building and altogether 500 bus stops in different parts of the state.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and around 20 state ministers participated in the event through video conferencing from their respective offices or residences.
Speaking on the occasion, the CM stressed the need of continuous and proper maintenance of all the buildings of the state government and asked the state’s chief secretary Deepak Kumar to bring out a ‘comprehensive maintenance policy for the government buildings’ on the very pattern of the state’s road maintenance policy.
The CM also said that buildings of altogether 28 departments were either inaugurated or foundations for the new buildings were laid from today's grand event.
Nitish further said the BCD engineers hardly had any work during the RJD government, before his coming into power in November 2005. He pointed out the BCD’s total annual budget in the financial year 2004-05 was just Rs 22.53 crore. “One can easily imagine what kind of work the department’s engineers and officers would be doing with such a meager amount. The BCD’s annual budget in FY 2019-2020 was Rs 2,650 crore. The increase in the department’s annual budget shows how many new buildings are now being constructed by the same department,” the CM said.
Highlighting the ‘robustness’ of the Patna-based Bapu Sabhagar which was opened two years back, the CM said that the Bapu Sabhagar was built on a steel structure. “Altogether 22,000 metric tons of steel, more than what used in the world famous Paris-based Eiffel Tower, has been used in the construction of the Bapu Sabhagar,” he said.
Nitish also said that before his coming into power in 2005, the previous government had decided to close down many of the state-owned corporations. The CM spoke in detail as to how he revived one after one corporation in the state.