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The Bihar government has prepared an extensive action plan for completing Kosi [Images] breach closure work by November 30, official sources said.

"The government has decided to complete Kosi breach closure work within stipulated time after the Centre allowed to go ahead," Bihar Water Resources Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told rediff.com.

Yadav said that first a pilot channel was being constructed to divert the river back to its old course.

Official sources in the Water Resources department said that the work to plug the breach was delayed by a month due to war of words between the state and the Centre.

Earlier, the state government decided construction of the pilot channel to revert the course of the Kosi by September 9.

Bihar disaster management Minister Nitish Mishra said the state government was committed to ensuring rehabilitation and reconstruction work in flood-hit areas but it would depend solely on early closure and sealing of the breached eastern Kosi embankment at Kusaha in Nepal.

The floods claimed over 125 lives, say official estimates. However, voluntary agencies fear the number could be much higher once all bodies are recovered.