The state government, to retain water in Falgu river, has fixed December 14 this year as the deadline for completion of a bund near Bitho Sharif on Gaya-Patna road.

State development commissioner Shakti Kumar Negi, who held a review meeting of the development schemes of Gaya and Jehanabad districts in Gaya on Monday, directed the water resources department to get the work started soon.

The survey would start shortly on the basis of which a detailed project report (DPR) would be prepared. Thereafter, tender for the bund construction work would be floated.

Brijnandan Pathak, a social activist, said: “Even as the upper layer of the riverbed dries up in summer, water could be found by digging just one foot. Water flows on the riverbed only during monsoon, when there is good rainfall.”