Patna, Oct 10 : The Bihar Government on Friday sanctioned Rs 197 crore to reconstruct, strengthen and plug the breach in the embankment caused by the Kosi river on August 18 at Kusaha in Nepal, which left lakhs of people marooned in five districts of the State.

Joint Secretary to the Bihar Cabinet Secretariat, Radhakrishna Choudhary said, "The cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Friday approved Rs 197 crore for reconstruction, strengthening and breach closure of Kosi embankment."

After the cabinet meeting, while speaking to reporters Choudhary said, “The state Government has already got Rs 40 crore of Rs 197 crore from the Centre for the breach closure work.”

Choudhary further said that due to the significance of the work and time constraint, the government would allot a tender on an urgent basis within a week to an agency to start the work, which would be completed by March 31 next year.

Most years, the Kosi river of eastern India is a tranquil stream that flows gently into river Ganges. But every few years it becomes a raging torrent, wreaking disaster on everything in its path.

That''''s what happened in August when after monsoon rains the Kosi burst its banks and flooded half of Bihar, wiping out villages and farms, and displacing more than three million people.

River Kosi, a tributary of the Ganges, flooded an area roughly the size of Belgium. The floods changed the course of the river, shifting it 120 kilometer towards a dry river channel it last flowed through 250 years ago. (ANI)