Rajbiraj, December 13:

About half the volume of the breached Saptakoshi river flowing to the human settlements has been diverted to its usual course. Repair work of the damaged embankment of the Saptakoshi is underway.

Water resource technicians, in course of site inspection after they were successful to divert half the Koshi waters to original course in the Saptakoshi Barrage, said construction of the coffer dam would be decisive to divert water flow of the river to its usual course. JN Singh, engineer at the Water Resources Department in Bihar, said, “All the water from human settlements could be diverted to its usual course once the construction of the coffer dam is over.”

Total of 1,044 cusec of water had been flowing from the barrage till December 9. As of today 2,000 cusec of water was flowing from the barrage after the construction of the alternative canal.

“If the construction work goes on rapidly, the river can be tamed by diverting all the water to its usual course soon,” Singh said.

“We have achieved success in diverting the river to its original course,” KP Sharma, engineer of Hindustan Steelworks Company Limited , which has taken the responsibility of constructing the alternative canal, said. “We have achieved success in diverting 40 per cent of the water to its usual course through the alternative canal,” Sharma said.

HSCL has planned to complete the construction of the coffer dam by March but locals said that the construction was not going on smoothly.