According to officials, rescue teams of the Sashastra Seema Bal, Border Security Force and National Disaster Response Force have been deployed for rescue operations.

The district administration has pressed nearly 100 boats into service to bring stranded people to safe places.

More than 25,000 people are taking shelter on embankments, rooftops and other high places but are yet to be provided relief materials.

'The embankments near Tilaktajpur are overcrowded with displaced people of villages submerged under floodwaters,' an official said.

Till last Friday, the district administration and engineers had claimed that there was no threat to the embankment from the rising water level in the Bagmati river. According to official sources, the embankment was repaired and strengthened last year.

However, villagers claim they had informed officials about a six-inch wide hole in the embankment. But no move was initiated to repair it. Nitish Kumar has ordered a probe and promised stern action against erring officials.

More than three million people were rendered homeless when the Kosi river breached its bank upstream in Nepal and changed course August 2008, flooding large tracts of land.