PM begins Bihar poll push with petro projects worth Rs 900 crore

Pushing his development message ahead of the polls, likely to be held in October-November, Modi said the Bihar package included 10 petroleum and gas projects worth Rs 21,000 crore, and that this was the seventh project that was completed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday inaugurated three petro projects worth Rs 900 crore in Bihar and hailed Nitish Kumar’s work as Chief Minister as he reached out to the state’s voters with a development pitch ahead of the looming Assembly elections.

A gas pipeline extending from Durgapur in West Bengal to Banka in Bihar, an LPG bottling plant in Banka, and another in East Champaran’s Harsiddhi were virtually inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

“When a special package was announced for Bihar, there had been focus on infrastructure of the state,” said the Prime Minister. “I am happy that I laid foundation stone of one such project, that of Durgapur-Banka pipeline project. I was told the work had been very challenging as there had been 10 rivers and the pipe had to be laid through forest and rocky land.”

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Pushing his development message ahead of the polls, likely to be held in October-November, Modi said the Bihar package included 10 petroleum and gas projects worth Rs 21,000 crore, and that this was the seventh project that was completed.

Taking aim at former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, albeit without naming him, Modi said the state and country had come out of the phase when a development project started by one generation would be completed by another. He praised Bihar Chief Minister Kumar for realising the projects in time by putting in place a “sound work culture”, saying the state, which has been at a disadvantage because of being land-locked, was now “progressing with India”.

The completion of such projects would help in the development of the eastern part of India, just like its western part,“ he added.

“I would like to use the terms gas-based industry and petro-connectivity, which may sound very technical but actually impact the lives of the common people,” he said. “Just imagine what would have been the situation if people were to keep venturing out in search of wood and other fuel for cooking their meals. The need is no longer there thanks to schemes like the Ujjwala Yojana which has ensured that LPG reaches households of the poorest of the poor.”

“Gas industry and petro connectivity could not have been imagined in earlier times. As Bihar is land-locked state, petroleum and LPG-based projects were not available to Bihar like states situated near seas”, said the PM explaining that gas-based industry and petro-connectivity would create lakhs of employment opportunities.

The PM said the 3,000-km PM Urja Ganha Yojana, one one of the longest gas pipeline projects in the world, would link Kandla in Gujarat to Paradeep in Odisha. “Paradeep-Haldia has reached Banka so far. It would be extended to Patna and Muzaffarpur,” he added.

-with PTI inputs