Union Budget 2025: Bonanza for Bihar: neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride Premium

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget for Bihar includes projects for agriculture, aviation, and tourism, sparking mixed reactions.

Dressed in a cream and red Madhubani saree, featuring Bihar’s iconic art, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman heaped promises on the poll-bound State in her Budget presentation on Saturday (February 1, 2025). The slew of projects kept key NDA ally, the Janata Dal (United), in good humour, while generating envy from other regional parties, as well as taunts from the Opposition’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which termed the announcements empty rhetoric in the absence of a special package for the State. 

Bihar is set to go to the polls later this year. The Mithalanchal region of the State got special attention in the Budget. Key announcements include ₹11,500 crore of financial support for the Western Koshi Canal Extension, Renovation, and Modernisation (ERM) Project, and a new Makhana Board for foxnut farmers. The canal project, Ms. Sitharaman said, will benefit “farmers cultivating over 50,000 hectares of land in Bihar”. 

The Makhana Board will “improve production, processing, value addition, and marketing” of foxnuts, the Finance Minister said. Mithila Makhana got a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2022, and 80% of India’s total makhana production is harvested in Bihar. The move is likely to benefit over five lakh farmers in the region, especially in the districts of Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Saharsa, Katihar, Purnia, Kishanganj, Araria, Supaul, and Madhepura. Foxnut farmers are predominantly from extremely backward classes, a group that the RJD has been actively trying to woo. 

Aviation is another sector set to get a boost in Bihar. “Greenfield airports will be facilitated in Bihar to meet the future needs of the State. These will be in addition to the expansion of the capacity of Patna airport and a brownfield airport at Bihta,” Ms. Sitharaman said, though no specifics were shared on where the new airports will be located.

“An additional allocation to support capital investments will be provided. The requests of the Bihar government for external assistance from multilateral development banks will be expedited,” Ms. Sitharaman said. Under the Union government’s Purvodaya initiative to develop eastern India, a National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Management will be established in Bihar. The Budget promises an expansion of hostel and other infrastructure facilities at the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna.

Ms. Sitharaman also promised support for the comprehensive development of the 17 Vishnupad and the Mahabodhi temple corridor, along the lines of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor, and pledged aid to develop Nalanda as a tourist centre and revive the Nalanda University to its “glorious stature”.  

Applauding the announcements, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said that the Union Budget was positive and progressive. “The Budget will give further impetus to the development of Bihar” and “will accelerate the economic development of the State,” he said. Another BJP ally, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) president and Union Minister Chirag Paswan, credited the National Democratic Alliance’s “double engine” government for “laying the foundation of a developed Bihar”.