Patna, Aug 4 - Around 50,000 people are still stranded in flood-hit Bihar though the Bagmati river, which breached its embankment and inundated nearly 200 villages in Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur districts, has started to recede. Officials have intensified rescue work to help the 200,000 people affected by the flood.

'With water levels in the Bagmati river showing a receding trend and plugging of the breach near completion, the overall situation is improving,' Bihar Disaster Management Minister Deveshchandra Thakur told IANS over telephone from Sitamarhi.

He said the entire breach would be plugged by the end of Tuesday.

'Engineers with the help of workers have been working day and night to plug the breach,' he said.

A fresh breach in the embankment of the Lakhendei, which flooded over 50 villages in Muzaffarpur, added to the difficulties faced by officials engaged in rescue and relief operations.

The swollen Bagmati had breached over a 100-feet stretch of the embankment at Tilaktajpur under Runnisaidpur block in Sitamarhi last week, inundating several villages and affecting over 200,000 people, a district official said.

Divisional Commissioner of Tirhut S.M. Raju said rescue and relief operations were in full swing in affected blocks.

'About 3,000 plastic sheets, 150 quintals of beaten rice and jaggery have been distributed among the flood-affected people in Sitamarhi,' Raju said.