PATNA, Jan. 12 -- The Bihar State Road Development Corporation (BSRDC) has pushed to an early completion of the four-lane Mithapur-Mahuli elevated road project after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) gave its nod for building a flyover on the NH-31 near new bypass, said a senior officer of the corporation on Sunday. "Our managing director Shirsat Kapil Ashok has been regularly monitoring the scheme to ensure its completion by August this year. Chief secretary Pratyay Amrit too has directed the BSRDC to expedite work on it," said the officer, adding that the project has already been delayed owing to delayed clearance of the design by the NHAI. The project, approved by the state cabinet to decongest traffic on the Patna-Gaya road section towards the new bypass in 2020, has already jumped several deadlines. Initially, it was targeted to complete in 2022, but modification in its design to link the elevated road with new pass and later procedural delays in getting no-objection from the NHAI to build a flyover had hampered the work. "The NHAI had earlier raised concerns over the design of the elevated road's crossing with the bypass. We got the clearance from the NHAI only recently. The agency had halted pillar construction for about a year. Following modifications to the design, the NHAI has now given the green light, and work on the pillars has already begun. The pillars are being built on the new bypass to connect the southern and northern sections of the elevated road. The crossing has been designed with a height of 5.5 meters to allow smooth passage for heavy commercial vehicles without any difficulty. This will ensure seamless integration between the elevated road and the bypass," the officer added. The overall project (including extensions to Punpun) is being developed in phases. The first phase (Sipara to Mahuli section, approximately 5.4 km elevated out of 6.7 km four-lane road) was completed and inaugurated by chief minister Nitish Kumar in June 2025. Vehicles have been plying on this stretch via ramps near Bhupatipur. The second phase focuses on the critical Mithapur to Sipara section (about 2.2 km long), which had faced delays due to design objections from NHAI. Officials indicate that pillar construction on the bypass will enable the elevated road to pass over it smoothly, connecting directly to other flyovers....