A portion of a dam in Bhagalpur's Kahalgaon came down crashing hours before it was to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The dam built at an estimated cost of Rs 389.31 crore is part of the ambitious Gateshwar Panth Canal Project which was planned to improve the poor land irrigation system in the region.

Several low-lying areas were flooded as water from the collapsed dam rushed into residential areas in Kahalgaon.

"The dam broke due to release of water in full capacity. The incident has not caused any damage to the newly constructed part of the project," Minister of Water Resources, Lallan Singh said.

CM Nitish Kumar, who was supposed to inaugurate the project today, had to cancel his visit.

The wall of the dam broke up after being forcefully hit by the Ganga river waters when the pump was switched on for a trial run on Tuesday at Bateshwarsthan in Bhagalpur district.

The water gushed into Kahalgaon and inundated areas in NTPC township as well some civil areas including the residence of the Kahalgaon civil judge and the sub-judge.

Principal Secretary of Water Resources department Arun Kumar Singh along with the Bhagalpur DM and SP were supervising efforts to drain out water from the NTPC township and some civil areas of Kahalgaon, around 3 km from the project site.

"Sand bags are being put to check flow of water," Arun Singh told reporters.

TEJASHWI YADAV TARGETS NITISH KUMAR

Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav blamed rampant corruption under CM Nitish Kumar for the fiasco.

"Rs 389.31 crore dam collapses ahead of inauguration. The CM was to inaugurate the dam with much fan fare. Yet another dam collapses due of corruption," Tejashwi said in a series of tweets.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The canal is a joint project of Bihar and Jharkhand, under which 18,620 hectares of land in Bhagalpur would get irrigation facility while 4038 hectares of areas in Godda district of Jharkhand would be irrigated, a government brochure on the project said.

The Rs 389.31 crore project has a total irrigation capacity of 27603 hectares out of which 22816 is in Bihar and 4887 hectares in Jharkhand.

The Planning Commission had originally approved the project in 1977 at an estimated cost of Rs 13.88 crore. The first administrative approval to the project was provided in 2008 involving a cost of Rs 389.31 crore, the brochure said.

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