Road a misnomer on this stretch, but not for VIPs

Patna: VIPs are more important than the common man. That’s an open secret. But nowhere has it been more spectacularly visible in recent months than on Fraser Road in Patna: It remains dilapidated for one reason or another, but competes with the “smooth cheeks of Hema Malini”, to quote a famous one-liner of RJD president Lalu Prasad, every time a VIP has to pass through it.

Around Dussehra last year, part of the Patna Junction-Gandhi Maidan stretch was dug up for work on an underground drainage project to connect the sump houses on S P Verma Road with the Mandiri nullah. On the intervening night of November 19 and 20, however, the stretch was re-laid and made to look like brand new. For, VVIPs from the state and outside had to drive through the road to reach Gandhi Maidan for the oath-taking ceremony of CM Nitish Kumar on November 20.

It was dug up again to complete the drainage project. Locals recall it has been dug up and repaired in parts several times since then. Three months or so back, both the flanks of the road near the AIR Mor were tunnelled, which caused constant traffic congestions. So much so that police had to divert the traffic moving towards the Dak Bungalow crossing via S P Verma Road. That coming from the opposite direction had to use the lanes and bylanes of Chhajjubagh and the museum road to reach Gandhi Maidan.

On June 24 this year, however, Fraser Road once again looked like a newly laid highway. For, Vice-President Hamid Ansari was to drive on it to reach a posh hotel to attend the silver jubilee celebrations of Asian Development Research Institute on the day.

Poor Fraser Road. Dug up yet again the very next day -- to complete the drainage work, it has remained no one’s baby till date with motorists and bikers “enjoying” a bumpy ride on the stretch between the Dak Bungalow crossing and AIR Mor.

With V-P Ansari again scheduled to travel to Patna on September 8 and 9, barricades have come up on Fraser Road, and the road itself seems set for a fresh makeover.