With the Kosi beginning to swell again, the Bihar government has requested Nepal to provide round-the-clock armed security cover at the 27-km embankment in Nepal.

Water resources department principal secretary Ajay Naik, through a letter to the Indian ambassador to Nepal, has requested the Nepal government to provide security at the Kosi embankment at Sattari and Sunsari districts of Nepal until October.

As the executing agency of the Indian government, the Bihar government, while reinforcing its commitment to maintain Kosi banks in Nepal has been apprehensive of ultras trying to damage the newly-constructed Kushaha and the adjoining banks. Maoists had staged protests during the Kosi breach plugging and also threatened Bihar engineers engaged in the exercise.

Naik said, “We cannot take chances. Any leakage in embankment through disruption will hurt Bihar”. The Bihar government had plugged a breach of 1.7 km at Kushaha this May at an expense of Rs 250 crore.

State Water Resources Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said there would be no repeat of August 2008 as the state government was on full alert.

The minister, however, sought cooperation from Nepal government to safeguard embankments that fall under the Himalayan country.

Last year, more than three million people were rendered homeless after the Kosi made a new course, wrecking havoc in the districts of Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria and Purnea.

Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Bansal will visit Nepal on Saturday with senior officials.

(With ENS, Delhi)