Mishaps in Bihar due to good roads: Dy CM

› (Number of) such accidents are rising as the roads of Bihar have become much better SUSHIL KUMAR MODI, Bihar’s deputy chief minister

PURNIA:Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday blamed “good and faster roads” in Bihar for the increase in road accidents.

“The roads in Bihar are better than before and people were driving at higher speeds,” Modi said in Purnia, 360km northeast of state capital Patna.

Modi was talking to reporters after returning from Narpatganj in neighbouring Araria district where he visited the house of a woman who was among five people killed in an accident Monday.

“The bus driver failed to check the speed and the vehicle hit the JCB machine on national highway 57 in Araria, resulting in death of five people,” he said.

“Such accidents are increasing as the roads of Bihar have become much better. But the government is very much concerned and it will soon come up with safety rules to rein in speed and discipline drivers,” he said.

“The government has allocated ~17,000 crore in the state budget to improve the road infrastructure,” he said, adding that six mega bridges would be opened in Bihar soon.

At least nine students of a government school in Muzaffarpur were killed when a speeding SUV ran them over while they were crossing NH-77 on February 25.

Earlier, 10 people were killed and 35 others injured on the outskirts of Patna when a private bus carrying a marriage party overturned on the Patna-Gaya state highway on February 19.