Committee formed to expedite flood mitigation plan in Bihar

The plan includes building a series of barrages, dams and linking of major rivers originating from Nepal to manage excess water in their course

The Bihar state government has proposed to set up a dedicated cell to fast track execution of flood mitigation plan.

The committee submitted its recommendation after holding a series of meetings with engineers of the WRD. (File photo)

The development comes two days after Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹11,500 crore flood mitigation plan for Bihar.

On Wednesday, additional chief secretary, water resources department (WRD), Chaitanya Prasad held a meeting of engineers in this regard.

The plan includes building a series of barrages, dams and linking of major rivers originating from Nepal to manage excess water in their course.

Prasad, however, could not be available for his comments till the filing of this report.

The plan, including the Kosi-Mechi river linking project approved by the Centre in April 2024, was also part of the Union Budget announcements after the Union ministry of Jal Shakti discussed and approved the Central Water Commission (CWC) proposal, which was submitted to it on July 9.

The central government had on June 28 set up a committee headed by the chief engineer, CWC, Bihar, Amarish Naya.

The committee submitted its recommendation after holding a series of meetings with engineers of the WRD, a senior official of WRD said on Wednesday.

The proposal also included construction of another barrage on river Gandak at Areraj in East Champaran, which is about 140km south from Valmiki Nagar barrage in West Champaran, building of a barrage or dam on Masan river—a tributary of Burhi Gandak—in West Champaran, a barrage on Bagmati at Dheng in Sitamarhi and construction of a canal from Kamala river from an under-construction barrage at Jainagar in Madhubani, construction of another barrage on river Kosi at Dakmara in Supaul and a barrage on river Mahananda at Taiyabpur in Kishanganj.

The WRD official said that construction of barrages on rivers Kosi, Mahananda and inter-linking of Kosi-Mechi rivers would also create huge irrigation potential in Seemanchal, comprising districts like Kishanganj, Purnia, Araria and Katiha.

“The Kosi-Mechi inter-linking project, entailing an expenditure of ₹6,300 crore, has already been given a national project status and the Centre has agreed to fund the project in 60:40 ratio. The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has prepared its detailed project report (DPR), which aims to provide irrigation to around 2.10 lakh hectare in the Seemanchal area,” said the officer.

The state government’s plans of inter-linking of Kamala-Purani Kamala-Bagmati rivers and Burhi Gandak-None-Baya-Ganga rivers will also get a boost from the Centre’s flood mitigation projects for Bihar.

“The Bihar government has been asking to manage floods by rivers originating from Nepal before Nitish Kumar took over as the chief minister in 2005. It was during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government at the Centre when India and Nepal agreed to build high-level dams on river Kosi (at Barah Kshetra), Bagmati (Nunthor) and Kamala (Chisapani) in the Himalayan nation and set up a joint project office at Biratnagar (Nepal) to prepare the related DPRs in 2004. However, the DPRs could never see the light of the day due to international issues. It forced Nitish Kumar to plan the flood management projects within the state’s territorial jurisdiction,” said the officer.

A comment from WRD minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary is awaited and the copy will be updated accordingly.