New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday approved the construction of a new four-lane bridge at a cost of Rs 2,926.42 crore, parallel to the existing MG Setu, across the Ganga River on NH-19 at Patna.

The construction period for the project is three and a half years and is likely to be completed by January 2023.

This mega project is 14.500 kilometres long and will pass through Patna, Saran and Vaishali districts of Bihar. The project includes a 5634-meter-long bridge running parallel to the existing old four-lane MG Setu, four Vehicular Underpasses (VUPs), one Rail Over Bridge (RoB), a 1580-meter-long viaduct, a 110-meters-long flyover, four minor bridges, five bus shelters and 13 road junctions.

River Ganga divides the state into two parts -- North Bihar and South Bihar. The existing four-lane old MG Setu connects north Bihar to Patna. It also facilitates movement of traffic from Nepal, East Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar and North Bengal to Patna, South Bihar and Jharkhand.

This new bridge will help ease the heavy traffic and provide for an overall eight-lane traffic corridor.

According to a statement from the central government, the new bridge will facilitate the traffic movement without any congestion for the road users along with socio-economic benefits to the society at large.

In addition, this project is expected to generate direct employment of about 20.94 lakh man-days during construction, the official statement added.

Till May 2014, there were only 13 bridges on River Ganga between Allahabad to Farakka. Additional 20 bridges have been planned in the above stretch after 2014, totalling the number of bridges to 33.

Out of these 20, five bridges have already been opened and construction work on seven bridges is under progress.

Work on the remaining eight bridges - Farakka, Sahebganj, Mokamah and Phaphamau - will start soon.