Heavy rain in Nepal poses flood threat in Bihar

At least six districts in Bihar, bordering Nepal, are facing flood threat following incessant rainfall in the Himalayan Kingdom. These districts have been identified as Kishanganj, Araria, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, and Motihari.

Besides, the heavy rainfall in North Bihar in the last few days too has further compounded the problem with several villages being ravaged in the last 24 hours.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a high-level meeting in this regard on Sunday at his official residence. The meet was also attended by Water Resources Department Minister Sanjay Jha and Principal Secretary of Disaster Management Department Pratyay Amrit. While all the departments concerned have been put on high alert, leave of engineers and other officials has been cancelled in view of the impending flood threat.

“Sufficient employees from State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed at the places facing flood threat,” said Amrit.

Meanwhile, certain trains in North Bihar were cancelled while others like Raxaul-Anand Vihar Express and Darbhanga-Jalandhar City Express were diverted. This followed heavy rainfall in Motihari (214 mm), Sitamarhi (154 mm) and Muzaffarpur (125 mm). Patna too witnessed a record 254 mm rainfall as against 250 mm rainfall in the corresponding period earlier.

In West Champaran, Valmikinagar Barrage released 1.66 lakh cusecs of water while Birpur Barrage (in Northeast Bihar) released 2.2 lakh cusecs of water. As a result, most of the rivers are in spate.

“At present, the situation is under control, but the rivers are in spate following huge discharge of water from the barrage,” said a senior official of Water Resources Department. Sources said Kosi, Gandak and Bagmati were, therefore, flowing above the danger mark.