SUNSARI, May 29 - After flood in the Koshi River breached the three temporary cofferdams constructed to alter the river’s course on Tuesday night, the Indian contractor has speeded up reconstruction and repair work on the spurs and embankment from Thursday afternoon.

Sheetal Babu Regmi, joint secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), who is at the Koshi site said, Basistha and Basistha, the Indian contractor has started reconstruction and repair work as the water level in the river started decreasing after  rain stopped from Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday afternoon about 64,000 cusecs water was flowing in the river while it was 95,000 cusecs on Wednesday afternoon. About 160,000 cusecs water was flowing during the flood last year.

Flood resulting from incessant rain for almost five days had breached the three cofferdams and one pilot channel constructed to divert the Koshi waters towards the barrage on Tuesday night.

Following the breach, the main course of the river diverted towards the eastern side where reconstruction work on the embankment was going on, raising possible threat of inundation after three spurs built along the embankment started eroding, according to officials.

The Indian government has stated constructing five spurs along the 1,700-metre stretch of the Koshi embankment, which is expected to be completed by June 15. However, Nepali officials blame the snail-paced work of Basistha and Basistha and are sceptical that the reconstruction will be completed by the given date. Out of five spurs to be constructed by the Indian side, only three spurs have been constructed till date.

The spurs were constructed to tame the river before this year’s monsoon sets in, according to officials.

According to Ramesh Kulkarni, project manager of Basistha and Basistha, the reconstruction of spurs, which had started eroding after the cofferdams were breached on Tuesday night, has started.

Reconstruction and repair of the damaged spurs will be completed in the next four days and reconstruction of the embankment will speed up after that, he said. A high level team comprising officials of Nepal and India directed the Indian side to speed up reconstruction work after visiting the affected site on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Water Resources minister of Bihar state, India, on Thursday blamed the lack of security provided by Nepal for delay in reconstruction of the destroyed Koshi embankment .

Yadav, who was on a field visit at the site on Thursday said, “Nepal lacked security for the Indian contractor who faced frequent attacks time and again. The frequent obstructions carried out by locals has delayed reconstruction work.”