NDRF personnel help evacuate villagers in boats from flood-hit districts in Rohtas on Monday. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Patna, Sept. 12: The flood threat in central Bihar districts subsided today with only 2.44 lakh cusecs of water left in river Sone against over 8 lakh cusecs yesterday.

“The situation is under control as the people trapped on the hillocks in Rohtas and Arwal districts have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams. Relief operations were going on vigorously,” chief minister Nitish Kumar said.

The state’s water resources minister, Vijay Kumar Choudhary spoke to his Madhya Pradesh counterpart suggesting: “You should have alerted us before releasing the huge volume of water from the Vansagar dam.”

Choudhary urged the water resources department of Madhya Pradesh to keep the Bihar officials in loop while regulating water through the Vansagar dam.

The dam had suddenly released over 8 lakh cusecs of water putting enormous pressure on the Indrapuri barrage in Bihar’s Rohtas districts and also at several places on the embankments along the Sone passing through Rohtas, Aurangabad and Bhojpur districts. The development had taken the government officials off guard for they were hardly prepared to deal with the spate in the Sone, which had not received such a high volume of water since 1975.

The water resources officials said NDRF teams were still on operation taking the rescued people to their respective homes.

Water had spilled over in several villages of Rohtas, Arwal and Bhojpur marooning people and the cattle.

The water-level in river Ganga continues to be higher posing flood threat in Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Vaishali and Chhapra districts.

“The situation, so far, is by and large under control. There is no reason to panic,” a water resources department senior official said.