The rising Ganga flooded several parts of Bhagalpur city sparking panic here.
Flooding disrupted educational activities at Bhagalpur College of Engineering, Delhi Public School and Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University and affected hundreds of people in residential localities.
Traffic on National Highway (NH) 80 from Kahalgaon to Bhagalpur was restricted after floodwater damaged a portion of the highway near Ghoshpur between Bhagalpur and Sabour.
Sources in the water resources department claimed the floodwater would submerge NH-80 at the point by Friday.
Police have been deployed on NH-80 to stop heavy vehicles while officials of the National Highways Authority of India's Bhagalpur division have stepped up flood-fighting measures to save the highway. Floodwater which inundated the intake well of Barari water works - a purification plant on the river's banks supplying drinking water to the city through underground pipes - poses a threat to residents.
Sources in Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation said efforts were on at a war footing to maintain pumping of water at the intake well of Barari. Bhagalpur College of Engineering was closed after floodwater entered the college campus on August 17. Inmates had to flee their hostels. Earlier, the boundary wall of Delhi Public School on the riverbank had collapsed owing to erosion.
Classes were disrupted after the rooms got flooded. On the TMBU campus, inmates of postgraduate girls' hostels and the professors' colony were mostly affected.
Residents in large numbers from villages like English Farka, Ghoshpur, Navtolia and Rajandipur under Sabour block have migrated from their native place to safer places.
Bhagalpur district magistrate (DM) Adesh Titarmare said: "There has been no casualty or any report of destruction of property."
Gaya alert
Alert has been sounded again in the catchment areas of Niranjana, Muhane and Falgu flowing through Gaya and Jehanabad districts following heavy rain in Jharkhand and south Bihar districts.
The six sluice gates of Ghoraghat dam at Chatra in Jharkhand have been lifted to let out extra water into rivers.
Gaya DM Kumar Ravi said: "I have asked the Dobhi circle officer to visit the Ghoraghat dam and report after assessing the situation."
