Patna: Darbhanga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar has called for setting up a river police station after a first-hand experience of river policing on Monday.

Manoj and other senior police officers nearly drowned when a country-boat they were in lost control and drifted 1.5km away on the Kosi river before timely intervention by some residents.

The SSP and a team of police officers were on their way to Tilkeshwar police outpost in a diara (riverine belt) on the other side of the river. Manoj and the team had gone for a routine inspection. Suddenly, the boatman lost control and the boat started drifting.

Three youths who were on the river banks swung into action and threw them a lifeline. The SSP later thanked the youths. "It is really a tough task to patrol these remote and inaccessible areas by road," Manoj said.

Tilkeshwar police outpost, around 70km south of Darbhanga district headquarters, is surrounded by rivers from two sides and shares its boundary with Samastipur and Khagaria districts. "During monsoon, boats are the only means of communication for residents," the SSP said.

Manoj announced setting up of a river police station so that the residents don't have to travel to Tilkeshwar police outpost to lodge complaints. The outpost operates from a panchayat bhawan, which is in a dilapidated condition. "I will send a proposal to the police headquarters to construct the police station's building on its own plot," he said.

The SSP decided to visit the outpost after some residents met him at his weekly janata darbar and said they were scared because of the arrival of some criminals from Khagaria to harvest their crops at gun point.

"I had promised to visit their villages soon," said Manoj, a 2008-batch IPS officer.

The SSP listened to complaints of residents at the police station and assured to sort them out. Earlier, Vikas Vaibhav and Manu Maharaaj had visited the police outpost.