Portion of Rs 389 crore canal collapses in Bihar before inauguration

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday canceled inauguration of Bateshwarsthan Ganga Pump Canal Project after parts of canal caved in a few hours before its inauguration.

Following the collapse of parts of the canal, a vast stretch of NTPC super thermal power station was inundated.

The Rs 389 crore-canal project is a ‘lift irrigation scheme’ in which water from the Ganga is to be lifted with the help of pumps and released into the canal to irrigate the agricultural land at Kahalgaon in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district and Godda in Jharkhand.

A portion of the canal collapsed when water from the Ganga forcefully hit its wall after the pump was switched on for a trial run at Bateshwarsthan in Bhagalpur on Tuesday evening.

The water gushed into Kahalgaon and flooded NTPC township including CISF Colony.

The project, which was conceived in 1977, was aimed at irrigating 23,000 hectares of land in Bhagalpur and Godda.

The Planning Commission had then approved Rs 13.88 crore for the project which eventually escalated to Rs 389.31 crore in the next four decades.

The Bihar Government had published the advertisement in local newspapers about its inauguration by Nitish on Wednesday.

However, after the launch-eve collapse of the canal, a press release issued by the CM Office said that the proposed programme of the Chief Minister has been canceled due to technical reasons.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad wondered how earlier “rats damaged embankments” and now canals were breached even before its inauguration.

The Water Resources Department Minister Lallan Singh had last month blamed rats for damaging embankments thereby causing the flood in Bihar.

“It’s high time FIR is lodged against the Water Resources Department Minister and other officials,” demanded former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. Rebel JD (U) MP Sharad Yadav too argued that the breach proved what amount of corruption was rampant in the department.