First wave of flood hits Bihar's Sitamarhi district

Patna, June 16: The first wave of flood hit the flood prone Sitamarhi district today as surging water of the Bagmati river inundated about 200 villages and snapped road communication to Muzaffarpur, the commercial hub of north Bihar.

Principal secretary of state water resources department A K Sinha told a press conference here that a red alert was sounded in the areas touched by the Bagmati river during its course to the Ganga since the water level maintained an increasing trend since yesterday following heavy downpour in the catchment areas of Nepal's foothills.

''The rainfall in the catchment areas of the Bagmati recorded 142 mm during the last 24 hours and as a result' the river was swelling and taking a devastating turn at Pasnaur village under Runi Syedpur block of Sitamarhi district,'' he said.

A high level technical team headed by the engineer-in-chief had since left for Sitamarhi to supervise work for the protection of embankments from the fury of the flood which overtopped a portion of the embankment, Mr Sinha maintained.

Elaborating the measures to be taken for flood fighting works at Pachnaur village, he said a ring embankment would be made as soon as the level of water receded, adding that the height of the embankment would also be raised. ''Mere raising of the height of the embankment is not the solution to the flood problems, but the gradual increase in the level of river bed due to siltation, defeats the very purpose of such kinds of effort'' Mr Sinha said adding the state government had mooted an idea to deepen the river beds.

He said the river deepening programme was an ambitious one and it required an investment to the tune of more than Rs 10,000 crore.

''The proposed river deepening programme is a part of interlinking of rivers which is still under the study phase as its aspect is being thoroughly analysed before the initiation of ground work,'' Mr Sinha stated.

UNI