Bihar govt sounds alert after heavy discharge from Kosi barrage

PATNA: Bihar government on Monday sounded an alert in view of more than four lakh cusecs of water from the Kosi barrage following heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal.

State Water Resources Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said the discharge at Birpur in Supaul district on Sunday night was 4.62 lakh cusecs, the highest for a day in nearly three decades.

“The last time we saw a greater discharge was way back in 1989 when it was 4.72 lakh cusecs. As is always the case in the Kosi belt, this has been due to torrential rain in the catchment areas of Nepal,” he told reporters.

Water had began to gush through Supaul district, where the discharge was recorded at Birganj around 2 A.M. Inundation of land tracts was expected in adoining Saharsa and Khagaria by Tuesday, Jha said.

The minister, however, asserted “The department’s officials and engineers are on the alert and embankments are being patrolled round the clock. People can also reach out to us through our call center by dialing the toll free number,” he said. People living in low lying areas and close to embankments were being relocated to safer places, he said and dispelled dispelled fears of a repeat of 2008 when floods in the Kosi region, caused by a change in course of the river.