Koshi river tamed, reverts to original course

Kathmandu, Jan 27: The infamous 'Sorrow of Bihar' the Koshi River, which was kept "somehow" under control for several decades, had broken all its barriers, and had claimed thousands of lives in 2008.

It had destroyed lakhs of acres of standing crops, thousands of cattle was swept away at a deadly speed of over 100 kilometers per hour. In a nut shell the 14 districts of east and north Bihar was literally annihilated.

After displacing thousands of lives in Sunsari district, the Koshi River is set to run through its original course. The Koshi River changed its course on August 18, 2008 and flowed through settlements in Sunsari and Saptari districts.

The river started flowing in its original course from Monday evening, Jan 26 after a team of more than 500 workers built cofferdams using sand sacks, concrete and galvanised wire. Out of 11,447 cusecs of water in Koshi river, 10,700 cusecs have started flowing through the barrage. Technicians are expected to divert the remaining volume of water, which is flowing through pilot channels along the embankment towards the barrage by today evening.

After breaching the embankment at Paschim Kushaha, Saptakoshi had flooded the neighboring villages of Nepal and India rendering thousands of people homeless. The river was tamed according to an agreement reached between the Nepal and Indian governments. The Indian government had contracted the job of taming the river to Vashishta and Vashishta, an Indian construction company, Nepalnews reported.

ANI