Patna: IT giant IBM is helping the government in flood-hit Bihar to trace hundreds of missing people, particularly children, by using software to create a database, an official said Friday.

Pratyaya Amrit, additional commissioner of the disaster management department, told IANS: “We are working with IBM to track missing people. We will start seeing the results soon."

Hundreds of desperate people have been queuing up in front of relief camps in flood affected districts of Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul, Purnia and Araria to trace their missing family members.

Nearly three million people were rendered homeless when the rain-swollen and silt-laden Kosi burst its banks three weeks ago and swamped hundreds of villages.

About 981,000 people have been evacuated to safer places till date. Around 279,000 people have taken shelter in over 300 relief camps in flood-affected areas, officials said.

Last week, IBM executives met government officials and promised to prepare a free database with details of people affected by the floods, number of people in relief camps, missing people, damage to life and property as well as internal resources available for relief and rehabilitation work.

"The database will be compiled in a software specially designed by IBM to cope with information after natural disasters of vast magnitude," Pratyaya said.

The IBM software was successfully used after the 2004 tsunami in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia as well as during last year's floods in Bangladesh.

Pratyaya said that after evacuation and relief, tracking missing people was the government's priority.

The disaster management department has prepared a lost and found data sheet that was sent to all district magistrates and relief camps in flood affected districts. A missing people's cell and a toll free number to lodge complaints about the people who went missing have already been set up.

The floods have claimed at least 50 lives, according to official estimates. However, voluntary agencies fear the number could be in thousands once all bodies are recovered.

Over 2.7 million people and nearly one million cattle have been affected by the floods caused by the change in course of the Kosi river following a breach in an embankment upstream in Nepal. About 100,000 hectares of farmland have been submerged and nearly 300,000 houses damaged.

Source : IANS