Patna, 03 February (ABN) Finance Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav presented a state budget of Rs 3,47,589.76 crore for the financial year 2026-27 in the assembly on Tuesday, giving priority to the sectors of education, health, and rural development. Mr. Yadav said while presenting the budget in the house that this budget of Rs 3,47,589.76 crore is Rs 30,694.74 crore more than the budget of the previous financial year 2025-26. An increase of 9.68 percent has been made in the budget compared to last year. He said that in the budget for the next financial year, the sectors of education, health, and rural development have been given special priority.
The Finance Minister said that the main objective of the budget is to achieve all the goals set under "Saatche-3" for the period from 2025 to 2030 and to bring Bihar into the category of developed states of the country. He also said that the growth rate of Bihar is expected to be 14.9 percent in the financial year 2025-26. The objective of the budget is to create employment opportunities for one crore youths in the next five years, for which all necessary measures will be taken.
After presenting the budget, the Finance Minister told reporters that ample funds have been allocated for the sectors of education, health, and rural development. The Education Department has been allocated Rs 60,204.61 crore, which is 17.32 percent of the total budget. Similarly, the Rural Development Department has been given Rs 23,701.18 crore, which is 6.82 percent of the total budget. In the same way, the Health Department has been allocated Rs 21,270.41 crore, which is 6.12 percent of the total budget.
According to the budget presented in the assembly, an estimate of Rs 2,25,434 crore has been made for the establishment and committed expenditure for the financial year 2026-27, which is Rs 25,298.92 crore more than the budget estimate of Rs 2,00,135.429 crore for the financial year 2025-26. In the expenditure of the financial year 2026-27, Rs 8,012.34 crore has been allocated for the Higher Education Department, which is 2.31 percent of the total budget. Apart from this, an amount of Rs 13,202.38 crore has been arranged for the welfare of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, minorities, other backward classes (OBC), and extremely backward classes (EBC) in the financial year 2026-27.
The Finance Minister said that the budget for the current financial year 2025-26 in Bihar was Rs 3.17 lakh crore. The minister said that the goal is to bring Bihar into the list of developed states. The Finance Minister said that the goal is to improve 94 lakh poor families. After presenting an annual budget of Rs 3.17 lakh crore last year, the Nitish government had also presented the first supplementary budget of Rs 57,941 crore in July and the second supplementary budget of Rs 91,717 crore in December.
Work is being done rapidly to improve air services in Bihar. After Patna, Gaya, Darbhanga, and Purnia, air services are being started in other cities as well. There is a plan to start small planes from Muzaffarpur, Saharsa, Bhagalpur, Veerpur, Munger, Motihari, Chapra, Madhubani, and Valmikinagar airports. Apart from this, there is a plan to restart the old airports in Begusarai and Gopalganj, the work of which has started. It has been mentioned in the budget presented in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha for the financial year 2026-27. The government is also building two new greenfield airports in the state.
A few months ago, a separate civil aviation department was established to improve air services in Bihar. The budget of Bihar in 2026 mentions the projects being run at various airports in the state. Nitish government says that approval has already been given to make the Aalo airport in Begusarai and the Sabia military airport in Gopalganj operational. A budget of Rs 81 lakh has been released for this.
The government is building new greenfield airports in Bihar. The construction of a greenfield airport is being done in Sultan Ganj of Bhagalpur district. 931 acres of land have been taken over for this, for which an amount of Rs 472 crore will be paid. Apart from this, a greenfield airport will also be built in Sonpur of Saran district, from which people of cities like Patna, Hajipur, and Chapra will also benefit. Approval is being taken to acquire land for the Sonpur Greenfield Airport for Rs 1302 crore. There is also a plan to build a greenfield airport in Rajgir of Nalanda district, although it has not been mentioned in this year's budget.