PATNA, April 29 -- The Water Resources Department (WRD) has started constructing a 2.5 km long, 30-metre wide pilot channel downstream of Kosi river. This is intended to protect the eastern embankment of the Kosi barrage and keep the river flowing mid-stream in the high siltation zone of the barrage. The channel will be linked to one of the tributaries before the monsoon as a major flood management measure, officials said on Tuesday. According to officials, the project was approved last year by the Kosi high-level committee after a site inspection. It will cost a little over Rs. 3 crore and is likely to be completed by May 15 this year. A senior WRD official engaged in the project's implementation said, "We are going to complete the flood management work by May 15 before the onset of the monsoon season. The pilot channel work in the Kosi barrage started early this year." WRD officials said the need for a pilot channel arose because siltation in high catchment areas caused the river's water flow to meander mostly toward the vulnerable, low-lying sections of the eastern embankment. This created an immediate need for flood management work to protect the embankment by reducing the risk of breaches during the monsoon season. Another WRD official highlighted that pressure on the eastern embankment increased mainly due to silt mounds in the mid-stream from heavy annual deposits carried by the river from upstream. "It is also impacting the flow of water from the Kosi barrage," the official said, noting how water had started flowing above the barrage's service road when a discharge of 0.661 million cusecs caused a heavy flood-like situation and pressure on the embankments. WRD principal secretary Santosh Kumar Mall said that the project would ease the pressure on the eastern embankments, leading to better protection. He added, "We have given momentum to the work and the project is expected to be completed within the deadline." Sources said that once completed, the pilot channel would become one of the River's natural flows and would be linked to many tributaries. The pilot channel is being constructed at the pier (structural concrete pillars) between gates 28 and 29 of the 56-gate Kosi barrage (1,149 metres long), which was built at Hanumanagar in Nepal in 1963. It is close to India's Supaul district, bordering Nepal. Meanwhile, the proposal to construct a high dam in Nepal to check floods in Bihar caused by overflowing rivers originating there has been made many times, but the matter remains pending. In 2008, the breach of the Kosi river's eastern embankment at Kushaha village in Nepal caused the ferocious river flowing from Nepal and Tibet to change its course and take its old path leading to heavy devastation in districts like Supaul, Saharsa, and Madhepura. Over 500 lives were lost in the deluge while thousands of people living in the catchment areas lost their livelihood and livestock....