Sambalpur: The Hirakud Dam authorities will release the season’s first floodwater on Tuesday.
Chief Engineer of Upper Mahanadi Basin, Burla, Jyotirmaya Rath said, “We will release season’s first water after 11 am today. The water level of Hirakud was 617.6 feet till 6 am on Tuesday.”
“In view of the rising water level of the Hirakud reservoir, we have decided to open the sluice gates to release the excess water. The reservoir is receiving around 1.50 lakh cusecs of water in every second and releasing 11, 846 cusecs of water. The decision will be taken on how many gates would be opened or quantity of water to be released, as per the situation,” he added.
Upstream of the dam has been receiving good rainfall and water level is also increasing.
People have been warned against venturing into the rivers.
However, the floodwater will reach Mundali in 40 hours.