PATNA: Bihar Police will soon have a new state-of-the-art headquarters, Police Bhawan, equipped with the wherewithal of disaster management.This was announced by CM Nitish Kumar while inaugurating the All India Police Housing Conference, organized jointly by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) and Bihar Police Building Construction Corporation (BPBCC), at a posh hotel here on Saturday. The new Police Bhawan will be located outside the secretariat campus on which the police HQ is currently located.
The CM emphasized the need to use green building and earthquake-resistant technologies in all government buildings to be constructed so as to conserve energy. There should also be a proper maintenance schedule and funds for that. He also stressed on making all disaster-management facilities available in police station buildings.
Kumar referred to Bihar Police Academy being constructed near Rajgir in conformity with green building norms at an estimated cost of Rs 206 crore. The project is registered with the Green Rating Integrated Habitat Assessment for a four-star rating. "The building is the face of the department," the CM said and added bulletproof material should be used to construct police buildings in Naxal-hit areas.
Commenting on the functioning of bureaucracy in Bihar, Kumar said officers tended to ignore the CM's ideas unless he asked about the proposal for the second time. He said BPBCC was a sick undertaking before he came to power. "My government pumped in funds - Rs 1,000 crore - and today BPBCC has turned around to earn profits in crores," he said and added even though many new police buildings were being constructed now in Bihar, "we still have a long way to go".
Kumar hoped the two-day conference, a first in Bihar, would help evolve better mechanisms to develop infrastructure across the country.
According to BPBCC CMD-cum-DG A K Gupta, the corporation has been handling projects worth Rs 1,000 crore during the last four-five years. It has handed over many completed buildings to the authorities concerned. The construction work on the Patna SSP's office building has also started while the six-storey Gandhi Maidan police station building will be handed over to the department soon. Besides the one inaugurated at Mauzipur, four more river police station buildings are being constructed by BPBCC in the state. Thirteen barracks for 300 constables each are also coming up at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore each, he said.
BPRD director Anand Prakash said the purpose of the conference was to bring uniformity in police housing across the country. DGP Abhayanand said the department needed buildings not only for housing police personnel but also as a structure to fight Maoists. Chief secretary Naveen Kumar also stressed on the need to construct buildings with green technology.
State road construction department secretary Pratyay Amrit made a presentation on 'Infrastructure Development' in Bihar during the last six years. Principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani, was also present.
