Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a budget allocation of ₹11,500 crores for several projects, including Bihar’s ambitious and long-awaited Kosi-Mechi Link Project. In her budget speech, she emphasized the central government’s commitment to financially assist Bihar in combating the recurrent floods that plague the state.
The Kosi-Mechi Link Project aims to redirect the surplus water from the Kosi River into the Mechi River, a tributary of the Mahananda. The government claims this will benefit the farmers in the Seemanchal region by providing irrigation during the Kharif cropping season.
The project involves constructing a canal to link the Kosi River with the Mechi River, intending to protect North Bihar from flood disasters caused by continuous rainfall in Nepal’s Terai regions. The Kosi River, known as “Bihar’s sorrow,” as it causes annual floods that lead to significant loss of life and property.
The Kosi-Mechi Link Canal will originate from the existing Hanuman Nagar Barrage across river Kosi located near Hanuman Nagar town close to Indo-Nepal border. The total length of the canal will be 117.50 km, including the existing 41.3 km Eastern Kosi Main Canal. The new project will cover 76.2 km and feature multiple hydraulic structures such as 9 canal syphons, 14 syphon aqueducts, 42 road bridges, 9 hume pipe culverts, 28 head regulators and 9 cross regulators.
Decades-Old Initiative
The Kosi-Mechi Link Project has been in planning for decades. The initial agreement between the Nepalese monarchy and the Government of India was signed on April 25, 1954, aiming to construct a barrage near the India-Nepal border at Hanuman Nagar. This agreement included building the Eastern Kosi Main Canal (EKMC) in India, which will now be extended to the Mechi River.
The project is expected to provide irrigation benefits to approximately 2.15 lakh hectares in the Mahananda basin during the Kharif season. However, the success of this project depends on the availability of water at the Hanuman Nagar Barrage, with the possibility of future extension to the proposed Kosi High Dam.
Opposition and Concerns
While the government promotes the Kosi-Mechi Link Project as a solution to Bihar’s flooding issues, many experts and local representatives argue that it could exacerbate existing problems. Kishanganj MP Dr. Mohammad Javed argued in the Lok Sabha that the project should be cancelled immediately, as it could exacerbate flooding in the Seemanchal region.
“Every year, especially North Bihar, and the Seemanchal districts of Purnia, Araria, and Kishanganj face severe floods. In addition to floods, erosion causes the loss of thousands of homes and hundreds of villages. My request to the government is to provide ₹25,000 crores annually to (Seemmanchal) for constructing concrete walls and boulder pitching along the riverbanks,” he said in the Lok sabha.
“Linking Mechi with Kosi water will worsen the existing lake situation. If interlinking is necessary, the water from North Bihar should be redirected to South Bihar. This project should be immediately canceled,” he added.
“The project is based on false statistics”
Mahendra Yadav, a founding member of the ‘Kosi Navnirman Manch’, who has consistently raised his voice against this project, told ‘Main Media’ that the Kosi-Mechi Link project is entirely based on false statistics. He stated that the Eastern Kosi Main Canal irrigation project, which was a failed project, has been slightly modified to bring forth this new project.
Mahendra Yadav explained that the goal of the Eastern Kosi Main Canal irrigation project was to benefit 7,12,000 hectares of land with irrigation. However, this project never managed to provide water to more than 20% of the target area. He further mentioned that in 1975, the irrigation target was reduced to 3,74,000 hectares, but even then, the government failed to provide adequate water.
“The canal will supply water to Seemanchal when both the Kosi Basin and Mahananda Basin are experiencing monsoon rains. The project talks about providing water for irrigation during the Kharif season, at a time when water will already be available in Seemanchal region,” he argues.
Yadav asserts that the government is misleading the public with exaggerated claims about the project’s benefits. He fears that the project could become a means for those in power to benefit financially during elections.
“The government is presenting false statistics… This project is entirely based on falsehood and exaggerations. I suspect that the people involved in its construction may have connections with those in power. The estimates will be inflated in such a way that it will benefit them during the elections.”
When asked if this project would solve the flood problem in Bihar, Yadav said that claims by ruling politicians that this project will eliminate the flood problem within the Kosi embankment are also false, as this project will not significantly reduce the amount of water in the Kosi River.
“Even by extracting this much water, the volume of water in the Kosi will not reduce even by a tenth. Moreover, when there is a lot of water, the discharge into the canals is stopped at the barrage. Such false promises are being shown to the people within the embankment to gain votes,” he concluded.
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