The issue should not just be whether the demolition of Curzon Reading Room on the campus of Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna is avoidable or not. The Bihar government, following widespread opposition from academics, scholars, students, etc. may agree to modify the planned flyover.
The even bigger question is where is the need for a flyover in this part of Bihar’s capital.
It is not that I am opposed to the very concept of flyover. But I am certainly against the obsession for building big dams, metros, flyovers or overbridges. Instead of symbols of development, sometimes they become tools in the hands of the ruling class to mint-money through commission and at the same time be applauded as a developmental-minded leader. This phenomenon is not confined to Bihar or India. After all our rulers cannot provide jobs, tone up health and educational system, check rampant corruption and loot and make administrative machinery more accountable.
At the very outset one should fathom the geography of Patna before understanding the issue of Khuda Bakhsh Library. The Nitish Kumar government wants to build a 2.2-kilometre long flyover all over the Ashok Rajpath, a main thoroughfare on which most of the premier institutions of Bihar are situated. The flyover will start from Kargil Chowk near Gandhi Maidan and terminate near the National Institute of Technology (NIT) road.
While on the southern side of the Ashok Rajpath are situated densely populated localities, Patna Market, the biggest wholesale medicine market of Bihar, etc., on the norther side of this road are situated B N College, St Joseph Convent and a church on its campus, Peerbahore police station, state’s premier health-hub Patna Medical College and Hospital, Khuda Bakhsh Library, Government Urdu Library, Patna College, Patna University, Patna Science College, etc. So Khuda Bakhsh would not be alone to lose a portion of structure or piece of land. The problem with it is that the Curzon Reading Room will be greatly affected as it is situated just on the roadside and there is no space which could be left.
On the other hand, the main building of Khuda Bakhsh would not be harmed as it is situated after a garden, which would otherwise vanish once the flyover comes up.
The convenor of the Patna Chapter of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage J K Lall wrote a letter to the chief minister, stating: “The razing of any portion of Khuda Bakhsh Library will be a monumental loss of heritage for not just Patna, but the entire world, and it will eclipse the glory of this institution forever.”
In the past too a move to re-structure the Curzon Reading Room was stopped on this very ground.
The government logic is that it is building a flyover to reduce congestion. Nobody disputes the fact that this road has become overcrowded largely because of the huge jump in the movement of private and public vehicles.
To overcome this crisis, the state government had in 2013 launched the construction of a massive Rs 2,234 crore 21.5-km long Lok Nayak Ganga Path (or Expressway) all along the bank of the river from the eastern to western end of Patna. Thus, it was a sort of Marine Drive of Bihar’s capital.
So, this proposed flyover on Ashok Rajpath and Ganga Expressway would run parallel. Believe it or not, these two elevated roads would run parallel just half kilometre apart from each other.
The main question arises here. If there already exists a couple of roads which link Ashok Rajpath with the Ganga Path, where is there need to build another flyover? The Ganga Expressway was designed with the very purpose of reducing pressure on the Ashok Rajpath then why the government is spending another Rs 369 crore to build 2.2 km long flyover?
Those who have their own vehicles might not give much thought on the whole issue, but those who had to suffer because of the thoughtless planning of the government would certainly complain. The truth is that nobody takes care of them. What is strange, apart from Khuda Bakhsh, which comes under the ministry of culture, Government of India, no other institutions are opposing the move and willingly letting the government take the land or buildings.
The problem with this flyover is that most of the people had to reach hospital, educational institutions, markets, homes within 2.2 km distance. For them this flyover is meaningless. Constructing overpasses, as it is also called, over railway track or similar such places may be understandable but how can one justify two roads in heavily congested localities like one on this part of Patna. Hold your breath. There is a plan to build a metro on this very overpopulated pocket of Patna. The tongueless multitude are alarmed over this messy experiment of the state government.
It has learnt nothing from the fortnight long waterlogging in the posh colonies of the state capital in the monsoon of 2019, when property worth billions were lost. The sight of the then deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi being rescued from his waterlogged house may still be fresh in the mind of the people. This was just the result of rampant construction in the absence of proper drainage system.
Mind it, it is the same chief minister (Nitish Kumar) who on August 22, 2016 wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling upon him to remove Farakka Barrage in West Bengal. He repeated the demand for its demolition several times, including at a seminar in Patna as Farakka has compounded the miseries of flood in Bihar. Farakka Barrage, which came up in mid-1970s just a few kilometres from the border of Bangladesh, was once touted as a great success story. Now it is held responsible for the accumulation of silt in the Ganga and its tributaries. Therefore, the river-bed has gone up.
When we, like many other developed countries in the world, were thoughtlessly going about building huge dams even in seismic zones – as Himalayas in India – we were patting at our back for these achievements. What we overlook is the frequent occurrence of natural disasters – or call it man-made ones – like the one witnessed in Uttarakhand recently.
Today we have gone overboard with flyovers and metros. It is not that there is absolutely no need for these structures. But one should wait and ask a couple of questions before applauding the construction of, for example, Delhi Metro or hundreds of flyovers in the national capital.
They may have somewhat smoothened the movement of traffic but they have not at all solved the problem of overcrowding in Karol Bagh market, or coaching hubs of Rajendra Nagar or Patel Nagar or near Jamia Millia – to name a few places.
A study done by a couple of researchers in Pune said that on an average every hour 1,200 people pass through flyover in that city whereas 30,000 people had to use the road underneath it in the same period. We have done little to solve the problem of those who had to travel beneath.
For instance, we spent thousands of crores in building Delhi Metro. No problem in it. But we, unlike Kolkata or Mumbai, never fully utilised the service of Electrical Multiple Units or local trains in the existing infrastructure or by laying dedicated tracks for them.
Coming back to Bihar’s capital which have in the last over a decade seen the mushroom growth of flyovers. Some of them were built jointly with the railways as the tracks passed underneath them. But most others are built by the state government.
Their construction might have solved the problems of people having their own vehicles. But the lesser mortals continue to slog.