Rs 389-crore dam in Bihar collapses a day before inauguration

A day before it was to be inaugurated by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a portion of canal bilt at the cost of Rs 389.31 crore in Bhagalpur collapsed on Tuesday.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was scheduled to inaugurate the canal scheme, aimed at providing irrigation facilities in the state and neighbouring Jharkhand.

The wall of the canal collapsed when water from the Ganga forcefully hit it after the pump was switched on for trial run at Bateshwarsthan in Bhagalpur district.

The water gushed into Kahalgaon and inundated areas in NTPC township as well some civil areas including residence of Kahalgaon civil judge and sub-judge.

"The proposed programme of the Chief Minister at Bhagalpur tomorrow has been cancelled due to technical reasons," an official statement said at Patna this evening.

Advertisement was put in newspapers today about the inauguration of the project by the CM in presence of Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan and local Congress MLA Sadanand Singh.

Principal Secretary of Water Resources department Arun Kumar Singh along with Bhagalpur DM and SP are on the spot to supervise measures for draining out water from NTPC township and some civil areas of Kahalgaon, around 3 km from the project site.

"Sand bags are being put to check flow of water," Arun Singh told reporters.

Its a joint scheme of Bihar and Jharkhand. Under it 18,620 hectares of land in Bhagalpur would get irrigation facility while 4038 hectares of areas in Godda district of Jharkhand would be irrigated, a government brochure on the project said.

The Rs 389.31 crore project has a total irrigation capacity of 27603 hectares out of which 22816 is in Bihar and 4887 hectares in Jharkhand.

Planning Commission had originally approved the project in 1977 at an estimated cost of Rs 13.88 crore. The first administrative approval to the project was provided in 2008 involving a cost of Rs 389.31 crore, the brochure said.

PTI