Bihar: Flood alert following heavy discharge of water from Birpur, Valmikinagar barrages

Patna, Sep 29 (PTI) The Bihar government has sounded an alert for floods in northern, southern and central parts of the state following heavy discharge of water from Birpur and Valmikinagar barrages on Sunday, officials said.

The embankment of the Bagmati river in Madhkaul village in Sitamarhi district broke on Sunday, which is being repaired, they said.

"Due to this incident, villagers have been evacuated to safer places and the repair work is on…No casualty has been reported so far," Richie Pandey, District Magistrate (DM), Sitamathi, told reporters.

Due to heavy discharge of water from Birpur barrage, seepage was also reported from the Kosi Eastern embankment near Gopalpur on Saturday night, which was repaired by the engineers of the Water Resources Department (WRD).

A total of 6.61 lakh cusecs of water was released from Birpur barrage on Kosi river till 5 am, the highest in 56 years. According to the latest bulletin by the state Water Resources department, the last time the maximum water discharged from this barrage was 7.88 lakh cusecs of water in 1968.

It may aggravate the condition of over 16.28 lakh people in 13 districts, who were already affected by inundation following heavy rain, officials said.

Similarly, 5.62 lakh cusecs of water was released from Valmikinagar barrage on Gandak till 10 pm on Saturday. This is the highest water discharged from this barrage after 6.39 lakh cusecs released in 2003. Traffic movement has been stopped near the Kosi barrage as a precautionary measure.

"The teams of the Water Resources Department are monitoring the embankments on a 24x7 basis so prompt action can be taken as soon as any erosion or danger is detected. Three superintending engineers, 17 executive engineers, 25 assistant engineers and 45 junior engineers of the department are working on a 24x7 basis and they are always alert. There is nothing to panic at all", Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bihar Water Resources minister, told PTI on Sunday.

"The water level of rivers Gandak, Kosi, Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamla Balan and Mahananda, Bagmati and Ganga-- has been rising across the state, following continuous rainfall over the past two-three days. Incessant rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal has led to rivers touching or flowing above the danger level at several places in the bordering districts," said the minister.

Following heavy discharge of water from these two barrages, the excess river water entered low lying areas of West and East Champaran, Gopalganj, Araria, Supaul, Katihar, Purnea and several other districts, officials said. An alert has already been sounded for several districts of Bihar as the IMD predicted heavy rain and warned of flash flood risk in parts of the state.

Districts such as West and East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Patna, Jehanabad, Madhubani and Bhojpur districts are likely to experience heavy rain."These districts are at risk of low to moderate flash floods," it said.

The state disaster management department asked the administration of the districts to remain on alert and take preventive measures in the wake of the forecast.

Around 13 districts situated along the Ganga, including Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Patna, Samastipur, Begusarai, Munger and Bhagalpur, are already experiencing a flood-like situation, and nearly 13.5 lakh people living in low-lying areas have been affected by rising water levels of rivers, following torrential rainfall, officials said.

A large number of people from the affected districts have been evacuated and brought to relief camps, they said. PTI