CM to open canal in Kahalgaon on February 15

BHAGALPUR: Last minute preparations are underway for the inauguration of the Bateshwar Ganga Pump Nahar Pariyojana (BGPNP) canal by chief minister Nitish Kumar on February 15 at Kahalgaon.

The ambitious scheme was scheduled to be inaugurated in September 2017, but following a breach in the canal, the inaugural function was cancelled and a probe was ordered.

The breach had occurred when water resources department engineers were conducting a trial run of the BGPNP. It resulted in inundation of several areas, including the CISF colony, Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Project township, in Kahalgaon. The project, started in 1977, is aimed at providing irrigation facility to 27,603 hectares of farm land in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand. The estimated and approved cost originally was Rs 13.88 crore, which is learned to have increased to Rs 828 crore by the time it was completed.

Irrigation department sources sa Bhagalpur DM Adesh Titarmere and SSP Manoj Kumar are personally supervising the security arrangements both for the inaugural function and the CM’s public meeting scheduled to be held at the sports ground of Khahalgaon Super Thermal Power Station (KhSTPS). Water resources department chief engineer Shailendra said, “We are giving final touches to the inaugural function scheduled on February 15. It would bring about a vast change in the irrigation scenario, besides boosting farming activity in the region.”

Courtesy: TNN