The National Thermal Power Corporation on Thursday denied any technical flaw in the design of the underpass, which is being blamed for the breach in an irrigation canal in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district, PTI reported.
Nearly 20 feet of the Bateswar Ganga Pump Nahar Yojana canal wall had caved in at Bateswarsthan in Kahalgoan sub-division, 273 km east of Patna, on Tuesday night. The canal caved in hours before Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was to inaugurate it. The Rs 389-crore dam flooded nearby areas, including the NTPC township.
Soon after the incident, Principal Secretary of the Water Resources Department Arun Kumar Singh had blamed “faulty construction” of the NTPC underpass beneath the canal for the breach. “While constructing the underpass for traffic purposes, the requirement of the canal was not taken care of,” , the Hindustan Times quoted Singh as saying.
Responding to the allegation, the NTPC said the construction of the underpass was done after getting approvals from the State Irrigation Department. The NTPC dismissed the allegation as “baseless and far from reality”. “We are Government of India, Maharatna Company who is well aware of our reputation and our responsibilities,” it said in a statement, according to PTI.
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