PATNA, Feb. 4 -- The percentage share of road construction department (RCD) in the annual budget for 2026-27 has dipped by 0.02% vis-a-vis last fiscal year, even as overall allocation of the department's budget has been hiked to Rs.7,404.79 crore for the coming fiscal as compared to Rs.6,806 crore in the current fiscal. The expenditure included the spendings on new schemes and establishment and committed expenditure, which include payment of salary. A section of the officials attributed the minor deviation in allocation to the schemes sanctioned in the past few years, which saw significant boost in construction of greenfield roads, mainly those of the expressways and national highways. "Construction of a number of road projects are going on, while land acquisition for several others are undergoing," said RCD minister Dilip Jaiswal, talking to media persons outside the state legislature premises on Tuesday after the finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav laid Rs.3.47 lakh crore annual budget in the state legislature. As per the annual budget, a sum of Rs.18,716.97 crore has been allocated for the road sector (including those to be built by the rural works department) in 2026-27 fiscal as compared to Rs.17,908.18 crore in the current fiscal (2025-26). The annual budget has proposed allocation of Rs.5,869.38 crore (4.80% of the total budget outlay) under the scheme head vis-a-vis Rs.5,257.55 crore in the current financial year. Of the total allocation, Rs.3,243 crore has been earmarked for construction of roads, Rs.925 crore for bridge construction and Rs.372 crore for major roads. There is, however, no change in the amount to be spent on maintenance, which stands at Rs.3,000 crore. A senior officer of the department said that the government has proposed to undertake a structural safety audit of 85 major bridges, for which a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the IIT, Delhi, and IIT, Patna, has been signed last year. In 2025-26, the 20.50-km elevated JP Ganga Path from Kangan Ghat to Digha Ghat in Patna was fully operationalised from west to east. The state's first double-decker flyover and the Shaheed War Memorial Chowk were also dedicated to the public. The Mithapur-Mahuli elevated path project was dedicated from Bhuptipur to Punu, while the Kachchi Dargah-Bidupur bridge section from Patna to Radhopur Ansh was also inaugurated. During the past year, projects worth a total of Rs.38,732.54 crore, comprising 266 roads and bridges, were sanctioned. Of these, 137 projects worth Rs.23,974.97 crore fall under the Yatra head, while the remaining 129 projects worth Rs.14,757.57 crore are other schemes....