The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has notified Patna-Bettiah road as National Highway 139W, setting the state for construction of a high-quality four-lane road between the two towns that would reduce the distance between them to 167 kilometres from the current 200-odd km and travel time to around 2.5 hours from the current five hours, officials familiar with the matter said.
The NHAI is also likely to build a four-lane bridge over the river Ganga, parallel to JP Setu, which would also ease traffic load on the proposed outer ring road in the state capital. The road construction department (RCD) has already submitted the detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed bridge, estimated to cost 1,900 crore.