Hirakud Swelling, Floodwaters To Reach Mundali By Saturday Noon: SRC

Bhubaneswar: With 28 gates of Hirakud Dam being opened due to heavy rain in the upper catchments of Mahanadi, the Odisha government on Thursday said that the lower catchments are likely to witness low to medium flood by Saturday.

Briefing the media, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena said Mahanadi is swelling due to heavy rainfall in Chhattisgarh. “With the water level rising in Hirakud reservoir, the authorities opened four more gates this morning in addition to 24 gates that were opened in a phased manner in the last two days. The water level at 11 am was 628.62 feet against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 630 feet while the inflow and outflow of the floodwater were 5.20 lakh cusecs and 4.80 lakh cusecs respectively,” he said.

Stating that the floodwaters of Mahanadi will reach Mundali barrage in Cuttack between morning and noon on Saturday, the SRC said that considering the discharge of the floodwater at Khairmal and Barmul, about 8 lakh cusecs will pass through Mundali.

After the floodwater is released from Mundali on Saturday noon, it will reach the lower catchments and pass through the riverside areas in Kendrapada and Puri districts by night. “Considering the volume of floodwater to be released from Mundali, there will be a low to medium flood in the lower catchments,” he pointed out.

Elaborate measures have been taken in view of the imminent flood situation.

“Till now, 30 ODRAF teams and 12 NDRF teams have already been deployed in the six riverside districts for rescue and relief operations. Besides, additional NDRF teams are kept in readiness at the NDRF Battalion at Mundali as backup units and they will be pressed into service, if necessary,” he said.