Hirakud Dam Water Recedes As Chhattisgarh Closes Barrage Gates

Sambalpur: Water level of the Hirakud dam has started receding at an alarming rate with Chhattisgarh government closing most of the gates of the barrages on the Mahanadi upstream.

Talking to mediapersons here on Friday, chief engineer of Hirakud Dam Jyotirmay Rath said a team of officials of the state Water Resources Department during its tour to Chhattisgarh on September 30 had visited six barrages built on the Mahanadi upstream and found that all gates of these barrages had remained open.

“But today, most of the gates of these six barrages were found closed today. While 18 gates of the Kalama barrage have been closed, only six gates out of 81 gates of the Miroli barrage and eight gates of Basantpur barrage are open. Besides, 45 gates of Simoda barrage have also been closed,” Rath added.

Talking about the inflow of water into the reservoir, he said the reservoir is receiving only 12,000 cusecs of water per second while the outflow is 16,000 cusecs of water per second.

He said if the situation continues, the reservoir will have an acute shortage of water during the non-monsoon season.

It may be recalled that the neighbouring state had opened all the gates of these six barrages during monsoon session this year without informing the Odisha government which had resulted in a flood-like situation in the downstream of the Mahanadi.