Kosi repair starts, but Nepal holds key to long-term solution

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New Delhi, Sep 2: no mortar and requires the minimum of plant and machinery for installation. The individual Porcupine element is an interlocking curved concrete block, which achieves its stability by the grooves on the top surface of one block matching the splines on the bottom of another.

The flow of water over the past few days have reduced. From 1.7 lakh cusecs of water on Saturday the amount of water discharged was 1.2 lakh cusecs on Monday. “Work has started on the diverting the water by government of Bihar and CWC is providing the technical help,” Bajaj said.

Weather permitting, Bajaj said the work on getting the river back on course and repairing the breach does not have to wait till November. “Work has already started and we have ensured the breach doest not increase any more. One does not have to wait till the end of the monsoon period to mend the breach.”

This, however, is not the long-term solution. Bajaj stressed that in future it is imperative to construct the Kosi High Dam.

“The Kosi High Dam is the only long term and feasible solution,” Bajaj said.

For Kosi High Dam to become a reality, the government of India will have to negotiate hard with the Nepali government. The detailed project report (DPR), which was being formulated by the two countries, was abruptly put on hold two years back after Nepal showed its disinterest in the dam.