Ganga above red mark in Patna, Buxar

PATNA: At Patna, a near panic-like situation prevailed along the bank of the Ganga on Tuesday, as the river was flowing 56cm above the danger level at Digha, 1.15 metres above the red mark at Gandhi Ghat, all in Patna, besides 1.06 metres above the danger level at Hathidah, around 110km from the state capital.
There was knee-deep Ganga water flowing in the lanes at Gandhi Ghat and in some low-lying areas along the bank of the river in Patna on Tuesday.The river water flooded Nakta diara and Bind Toli areas.

The water level in the past 24 hours has gone up by around 14 to 20cm along its downstream from Buxar to Kahalgaon. The Ganga was flowing 45cm above the danger level at Buxar, 20cm at Bhagalpur and 83cm at Kahalgaon. At Munger, the water level was near the danger mark.
At Gandhi Ghat, the water level was 77cm below the highest flood level (HFL) of 50.52 metres. At Hathidah, it was 35cm below the HFL mark of 43.17 metres.
The situation worsened in the last 24 hours as the water discharge through Indrapuri barrage across Sone river also increased causing increased amount of water flowing into the Ganga at Maner on the western outskirts of Patna. Punpun river was also flowing 1.26 metres above the danger level at Sripalpur on the eastern outskirts of Patna.
Furthermore, moderate rainfall from 15mm to 64mm had been received both in Nepal and along the basins of the rivers in north and south Bihar. The rainfall forecast is the same in both Nepal and Bihar till Thursday which, in turn, will increase the water level in all the major and minor rivers that also fall into the Ganga in the state.
Water discharge through the Gandak, Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamla, Kosi and Mahananda was not so high, as they were flowing above the danger level only at a few places along their downstream.
The situation is unlikely to remain the same, as their levels are expected to go up by Thursday due to uniformly spread moderate rainfall till then.