The accident resulted in inundation of several nearby areas. An underpass below the collapsed section passes through the National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) township in Bhagalpur's Kahalgaon, and water entered there as well.
The Bihar government was left red-faced on Wednesday when a portion of a newly-built Rs 800-crore canal in Bhagalpur collapsed during its trial run, hours before its scheduled inauguration by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, forcing him to cancel his trip to the city.
The accident resulted in inundation of several nearby areas. An underpass below the collapsed section passes through the National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) township in Bhagalpur's Kahalgaon, and water entered there as well.
An official communiqué from the CM's office said his proposed programme at Bhagalpur was cancelled due to "technical" reasons. The government has ordered a probe into the incident, though local sources blamed the collapse on poor quality of construction.
The breach was plugged by engineers on Wednesday evening, though senior officials said it will take around two months to make the canal ready for a re-trial.
"The responsibility for the accident will be fixed, and appropriate action will be taken against those found at fault," said a senior official.
The canal, a part of Bateshwarsthan Ganga Pump Nahar Pariyojana, is a "lift irrigation project" in which water from the Ganga was to be released to irrigate over 20,000 hectares of agricultural land in and around Kahalgaon.
The project was sanctioned by the Planning Commission in 1977 at a cost of Rs 13.88 crore, but its last revised cost stood at Rs 828.80 crore. Parts of it are yet to be constructed.
"Water was being pumped into the canal since Tuesday morning for the trial. However, it could not withstand the pressure, and around 6 pm (on Tuesday), a 15-foot-long wall of the elevated portion of the canal caved in," said a source in Bihar's Water Resources Department (WRD).
WRD minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh blamed the collapse on NTPC's underpass, saying, "Technical details were not considered while its construction."
Nitish's former ally RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav targeted the government, asking why the "scam" in the WRD was not being taken cognizance of. "Was it a canal of Rs 828 crore or a batasha (sweet) that it collapsed when water rushed in?" asked Lalu. "Why has Nitish shut his eyes to the corruption in the WRD?" asked Tejashwi. RJD workers burnt effigies of the CM and the WRD minister in Bhagalpur.
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