3 Railway Ministers, and 28-year wait for lines: Bihar’s long track record

Even the 19-km Khagaria-Alauli section only became operational in the run-up to the ongoing Assembly elections, months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it in April.

A total of 53 projects – from new lines to gauge conversion and doubling – have been pending in Bihar since 1996, according to data obtained by The Indian Express under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Many of these projects were initiated during the tenures of three Union railways ministers from Bihar: Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad.

Petrol sold in bottles in Kusheshwar Asthan. (Express Photo)

“The actual benefit of the line will be when it is completed up to Kusheshwar Asthan, which is a good market for selling local produce,” says Sushila Devi. “Currently, two trains are operational from the Alauli station, but they have inconvenient timings and are very slow… We should have a train early morning and one in the evening, so that people can travel to the nearest city centre, which is Khagaria.”

Devi adds that since the whole region is often flooded by Kareh (Bagmati) River, connectivity is often disrupted, and sees this as one reason for migration from these parts.

If Paswan once dominated Alauli, where Musahar Dalits are in a majority, the RJD has won the last two times. In this election, sitting RJD MLA Ramvriksha Sada is facing the JD(U)’s Ramchandra Sada.

Retired teacher Dharmendra Prasad Singh says he still remembers when the railway link to the village was announced. “Hamein aasha thi ki Ram Vilas ji hain toh train yahan tak zaroor aayegi (We were hopeful that with Ram Vilas ji, the train would definitely come till here),” Singh says, ruing the lost potential of ramping up freight loading as this is a high-maize-producing belt. “What is the point of having a train if we can reach earlier by road?”

Asked if the incomplete railways project would have any impact on the results, 75-year-old Alauli resident Lalu Rajak says, “The dream is coming true… so, will you get votes from us? You don’t have to even ask.” However, he too wishes the pace of work would pick up.

Around 30 km from Alauli, in Kusheshwar Asthan’s market, the roadside shops share a feature – they all sell petrol in plastic bottles, neatly arranged on wooden counters, reflecting the shortage of petrol pumps in the flood-prone and economically backward region.

Sujeet Paswan, who runs a mobile repair shop in the market, says the closest major centre is Darbhanga, about 70 km away. Another railway line, to connect Kusheshwar Asthan with Darbhanga, also remains incomplete. It was sanctioned in 2005-06 at a cost of Rs 337 crore under then Union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad.

“The nearest station to us is Harnagar, which is 8 km away. But it is a very small station. We rely mostly on buses, which at times are costly and time-consuming,” says Sujeet.

Bharat Prasad, who has switched from selling books to food at his shop at Sugauli station, has witnessed the region’s changing railways landscape. (Express Photo)

SC-reserved Kusheshwar Asthan seat came into existence after delimitation in 2008. The JD(U) won the seat in the 2020 Assembly polls and again in a 2021 bypoll, necessitated by sitting MLA Shashi Bhushan Hazari’s death. This time, the JD(U) has fielded Atirek Kumar, a former Congress leader, who is contesting against Ganesh Bharti, an Independent backed by the Opposition Mahagathbandhan.

Around 250 km from Kusheshwar Asthan, another railway line, in East Champaran district’s Sugauli, meant to run to Hajipur near Patna via Vaishali, has been awaiting completion for over two decades. The 151-km line was sanctioned in 2003-04 at a cost of Rs 2,702 crore when Nitish Kumar was the Union Railways Minister. In the past 22 years, the line has only reached Deoria in Muzaffarpur district, with the stretch to Sugauli still under construction.

Bharat Prasad, who has switched from selling books to food at his shop at Sugauli station, has witnessed the region’s changing railways landscape. “This line used to be a meter gauge, which was converted to broad gauge during Paswan’s tenure. No major train originates from here, but it does have stops on major routes,” says Prasad, while adding that the railway line is not an election issue.

The election in Sugauli has turned one-sided after the cancellation of the RJD candidate’s nomination. In the 2020 polls, the RJD’s Shashi Bhushan Singh won. This time Tej Pratap Yadav’s Janshakti Janata Dal candidate Shyam Kishore Chaudhary and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate Rajesh Kumar are in the fight.

Sitting at the waiting area in front of the Sugauli station is 65-year-old Satyanarayan Sharma. “Politics should be fought on the basis of issues. They are fighting for Lalu vs Nitish. This line (to Sugauli) will connect many remote villages, and it will save money for journeys to Patna,” says Sharma, who works in a furniture shop.

However, auto-driver Rahul Sharma is more hopeful. “Lalu ji ne Bihar ke road ko gaddhe me daal diya tha (Lalu ji had reduced the roads of Bihar to potholes). At least Nitish has shown some work on the ground,” Sharma says.

Among the key projects sanctioned by Lalu that remain incomplete are the Araria-Supaul, Nawad-Laxmipur, Ara-Bhabua Road and Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga lines.

The RTI response by the East Central Railways, which oversees the rail network that covers almost 80% of Bihar, shows that many of the projects have been kept under abeyance, frozen, required fresh line surveys, or declared “not required” by the ministry’s Railway Board over the years. The expenditure and rate of return (RoR) were flagged as the main issues in these projects.

A retired Railways official says there is a need to focus on expanding the railway network within Bihar. “Currently, we either introduce express trains for inter-state travel or announce Metro projects. But who will talk about connecting one district of Bihar to another?”