MoRTH to dredge Bihar rivers and use silt for highways
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will use recovered sediments from desilting waterbodies to address road construction material shortages.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will undertake the desilting of rivers and waterbodies in Bihar to increase their water-carrying capacity, according to The New Indian Express.
The ministry and the Bihar government are scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday. The signing will take place in the presence of Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary.
The initiative aims to mitigate floods and address the shortage of affordable materials for road construction. Silt, sand, mud, and fine sediments recovered from the waterbodies will be used in National Highway projects.
Minister Gadkari said the Centre is willing to undertake dredging and remove accumulated silt. He stated that if the Bihar government allows such a policy, the flood problem can be solved efficiently at low cost, adding that the silt can be used as material for building highways.
Bihar has more than 50,000 waterbodies, including the Ganga, Gandak, Kosi, Bagmati, Mahananda, Sone, and Punpun. The Kosi, Bagmati, Kamla-Balan, and Gandak are among the rivers that cause extensive flooding in several districts.
Earlier this month in Patna, Gadkari suggested that implementing a water grid system and transferring water between basins could help manage excess water flow to make Bihar flood-free.