Nitish Kumar lays foundation stones for nine irrigation projects in Bihar's Lakhisarai district

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday laid foundation stones for nine irrigation projects worth Rs 92.60 crore by unveiling a stone-slab through a remote control at a water resources department’s (WRD) programme held at Manikpur middle school under Suryagarha block of Lakhisarai district.
“A total area of 23,905 hectare or one lakh bigha will be irrigated from these nine projects which will use waters from nearby rivers to irrigate the farmlands in different parts of Lakhisarai district,” Nitish said while addressing a public meeting at the same venue soon after laying the foundation stones.
He said the construction work on all the nine projects would begin within a week and it had been decided to complete these projects in the next 15 months. “I have firm believe that all these projects would be completed by March 2020. If completed on the fixed time, we will also be able to inaugurate them,” Nitish said.
CM further said works on the state government’s pending irrigation projects have been accelerated after trifurcation of the WRD. He said the WRD was recently trifurcated into three wings namely irrigation, flood control and monitoring to divide works among the officers and engineers.
“Prior to trifurcation, majority of WRD’s engineers used to engaged only in flood control related works. Resultantly, the irrigation projects used to get delayed. After trifurcation, works on the irrigation projects have been sped up and state’s irrigation capacity has been increased,” Nitish said.
Earlier in the day, CM inaugurated the newly constructed administrative building of Munger University on the campus of the Raja Devakinandan Diamond Jubilee College in Munger divisional town. The CM also released a souvenir on the occasion and formally launched the official website of the university.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma, WRD minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh also were present at both the events.