Floodwater Of Hirakud Dam Nears Optimum Level, Eight More Gates Opened

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Sambalpur: With the floodwater of Mahanadi nearing the full reservoir level (FRL), the dam authorities opened two more gates on Tuesday to maintain the water level of the reservoir as per the rule curve.

Notably, the dam authorities had opened six more gates on Monday to release the floodwater as the water level went up to 629.52 feet against the FRL of 630 feet.

Chief Engineer of Hirakud Dam, Anand Chandra Sahu said that although there is less inflow of floodwater to the dam due to less rainfall in the upper catchments, the decision to open more gates has been taken to maintain the water level under the FRL to ensure safety.

The water level of the dam was 629.52 feet by 9 am on Tuesday. While the inflow of the floodwater was 1,78,685 lakh cusecs, the outflow from 12 gates was 2,16,804 lakh cusecs.

Besides, the discharge of the floodwater in the lower catchments was 2,77,500 lakh cusecs at Khairmal and 1,65,125 cusecs at Barmul and 2,61,500 cusecs at Mundali.