Sambalpur: The authorities of Hirakud Dam in Odisha’s Sambalpur district opened four more sluice gates on Saturday as the water level of the reservoir kept rising following heavy rain in the upper catchment areas of Mahanadi river.
With this, excess water is being drained out of the reservoir through 26 of the 64 sluice gates.
Official sources said that the water level of the dam’s reservoir went up due to heavy rains in the upper catchment area of the Mahanadi river. The authorities had to open four more sluice gates of the reservoir to discharge the floodwater.
According to Special Relief Commissioner office, the water level of the reservoir stands at around 627 ft against against its optimum capacity of 630 feet. The average inflow and outflow of water into the reservoir is 3.89 lakh cusecs.
An alert has also been sounded in districts downstream of Mahanadi. The water flow of the Mahandi is 6,69,000 cusec at Mundali, 6,74,500 cusec at Barmul, 6,46,000 at Khairmal and 47,400 at Belgaon, it added.
Ruling out opening of more gates, chief engineer of Hirakud Dam Anand Sahu said because of inflow of water, we opened four more gates today. But as there is no chance of more inflow, 26 gates will be kept open for now for release of excess water from the reservoir.
With the rise in the water level of Mahanadi, flood-like situation has emerged in six panchayats of Cuttack’s Banki. Water above 2 feet is reportedly flowing over Hulhula bridge in the block.
Communication between Subarnapur panchayat and Banki block has been snapped and similar situation is seen at different panchayats in Tigiria block, sources said.
Notably, Odisha has recorded 217.1 mm rainfall between September 1 and 16 against the monthly average of 231.9 mm. In the last 24 hours, 25 blocks have recorded rainfall of more than 10 mm with the highest of 45.4 mm at Reamal block in Deogarh district.
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