Decay and Darkness in Bihar

The traffic in Patna is, as expected, chaotic but soon we reach zero mile. This is where the “four-lane” toll road begins. “Four-lane” is not so much a descriptor as a concept. In Bihar roads are of two types – four-lane and bad roads, as our driver explained. We are on the road from Patna to Munger, a distance of about 165 kilometres. The well-maintained toll road has little traffic. Unlike highways elsewhere, National Highway 80 – the major artery connecting the two big cities of the state, Patna and Bhagalpur – is bereft of any commercial traffic.

The toll road is four-lane only for about 40 kilometres and then reverts to a regular, potholed, two-lane strip. Almost all the way, we are parallel to the river Ganga, a few hundred yards from its south bank. The main stream of the Ganga has moved a few kilometres north, leaving a riverine island known as the “diara”. Hardly any stretch of land is uninhabited, and villages and settlements crowd the roadside, away from the low-lying, waterlogged area.