Patna: Bihar has made rapid development in almost every sector, especially road infrastructure, under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the past two decades.
The road construction has undergone a massive overhaul in the state, which has almost doubled the length of roads in the past two decades.
The length of road, which was 14,468 km in 2005, has increased to 26,000 km, according to the road construction department's official sources.
Length of NH & SH
The length of National Highways was 3629 km in 2005 which has increased to 6147 km in 2025 whereas the length of State Highways has increased to 3638 km from 2382 km while the length of Major District Roads (MDR) has almost doubled to 16,296 km from 8,457 km during the same period.
The state has witnessed significant improvements in road widening. Prior to 2005, most of the roads were single lane or intermediate lane but things have changed now as the state now boasts two lane, four lane and six lane roads.
The length of single lane NH has declined to 186 km in 2025 from 764 km in 2005, but the length of double lane NH has increased to 3,278 km from 1208 km during the same period. Though the length of the four and six-lane NH has increased to 1704 km.
Similarly, the State Highways have also witnessed a significant increase in their length. The length of the two-lane SH, which was merely 52 km, increased tremendously to 2786 km, whereas the length of single and intermediate lane roads reduced to 286 km and 292 km, respectively.
When it comes to expressways, there was not a single expressway in 2005 in Bihar.
But with the state government’s persistent and concerted efforts, the Central government gave its nod for expressways in the state which changed things completely.
Expressways in Bihar
There are five expressway projects that are currently underway, which would not only provide better connectivity to the state but would also accelerate its pace of economic development.
The five expressways are-
408 km long Raxaul-Haldia Expressway
417 km long Gorakhpur-Siliguri Expressway
250 km long Patna-Purnea Expressway
300 km long Buxar-Bhagalpur Expressway
161 km long Varanasi-Kolkata Expressway
The Nitish Kumar government has taken a resolve to reduce the travel time to reach Patna from any part of the state within five hours by the end of the year.
After achieving the five hour target, the travel time from Patna to remote parts of the state will be further reduced to four hours.
