Patna: Authorities in the eastern Indian state of Bihar have ordered an investigation after a road was “stolen” by thieves.
The incident of “road theft” has been reported from Darbhanga, a northern Bihar district some 140 kilometres from Patna.
Local municipal corporation authorities registered a case with the local police after 150-metre stretch of brick road suddenly disappeared from the area overnight. According to authorities, some enterprising thieves may have stolen the bricks and sold them in the market to earn money.
“The brick-soling of an entire stretch of the road constructed in 2016 has been stolen by unidentified miscreants,” the municipal authorities have said in a written complaint to the police.
A former municipal official told local media that the locals might have removed the bricks as the road might have been constructed on private land without obtaining formal permission.
“We are investigating the road theft case,” a police official posted with the Laheriasarai police station, RK Sharma told the media today.
Another police official associated with the investigation said he found no trace of the road during the investigation. “May be there is a big scam involved therein,” he apprehended adding the case needs thorough investigation.
Bihar of late has focused its attention on constructing roads to improve transport connectivity. The state government is now working on its plan to reach Patna from any corner of Bihar, within five years.
According to an official report, the state government constructed 15,052.57km of roads between 2005 and 2012. There were, however, no official details of total length of roads constructed afterwards.
Another report said the Narendra Modi government in India had set an all-time high target of building 15,000km of roads in 2016-17 but only managed 8,200km of roads, according to a report published in the Hindustan Times.
A similar kind of incident had recently been reported from China where the thieves “stole away” an 800-metre stretch of concrete road overnight in January.
