Patna, June 25: Chief minister Nitish Kumar will take stock of flood-fighting preparations on June 29.

With the rains having arrived in Bihar and the India Meteorological Department forecasting a normal monsoon, the state government wants plans in place to battle Bihar's bane - the almost annual, devastating deluge that engulfs large parts of the state during the rainy season.

Nitish, to that end, will assess the preparations made by district administrations and the disaster management department.

He will interact with all district magistrates (DMs) and enquire about the preparations they have made to fight floods in their areas.

"The chief minister will be interacting with the DMs through video-conferencing and he has also sought details from the disaster management department about the steps taken for flood preparations," a senior government official said under cover of anonymity because he is not authorised to brief the media.

"A standard operating procedure has been formulated and all the districts are supposed to follow it meticulously," said a disaster management department official. "Also, pre-flood preparations have become a part of the routine work which have to be completed well in time. The chief minister would review all this points during his interaction with the district officials."

Bihar's flood woes don't just stem from excessive rainfall in the state. Chief minister Nitish Kumar says - and many experts agree - that due to silt choking the Ganga, the river often overflows even during normal-rainfall seasons, bringing misery to Bihar.

Large parts of the state, especially the northern districts, are also affected if there is excessive rainfall in Nepal. Many rivers that flow through north Bihar districts originate in Nepal and excessive rain in the Himalayan country wreaks flood havoc in Bihar.

Around 73 per cent of the geographical area of north Bihar is considered flood-prone.

Two particularly disastrous floods have hit Bihar in the past one decade. In 2007, floods had hit over 20 districts - mostly in north Bihar - due to heavy rainfall in catchments of almost all the major rivers of the state.

A year later, in August 2008, a breach in the Kosi embankment near Kusaha village in Nepal brought catastrophic floods that affected millions of people in Supaul, Madhepura, Araria, Saharsa, Katihar and Purnea districts of Bihar along with Sunsari and Saptari districts of Nepal.

In 2016 as well, Bihar witnessed floods in phases affecting over a dozen districts and forcing the state government to undertake massive relief operations.