Ganga in spate, Patna braces for the worst

PATNA/SASARAM: Bihar’s capital Patna is facing the gravest of flood threats since 1975, with the rising Ganga river entering parts of the city.

The district administration has sounded an alert for people living on the edge of the city’s northern embankment of Ganga and the protective embankment against Punpun in Pahari areas to Patna’s south.

Water has entered central Patna at LCT Ghat and Gandhi Ghat, even as CM Nitish Kumar ordered the water resources department to take protective measures.

WRD officials said reinforcing of an anti-flood protective wall would need more time and money. They said trucks of sand and boulders had been placed at critical points but time was a crucial factor in the fight to stop the Ganga.

Officials said a sudden discharge from the Bansagar reservoir in Madhya Pradesh has flooded the Sone river entering Bihar in Rohtas district, some 200 kms south of the capital.

Officials said the Ganga is poised to break the highest watermark level of 50.7 metres registered in 1994 as it was flowing just 7 cms below that mark.

Meanwhile, waters have begun entering the posh Pataliputra colony, forcing patients admitted to Sahyog Hospital to evacuate.

Two columns of the state disaster relief force and one from the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed for evacuation.