Low To Medium Flood Expected In Mahanadi River System: Odisha SRC

Bhubaneswar: In view of the heavy rainfall in the upper catchments, low to medium flood is expected in the Mahanadi river system, said Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena on Wednesday.

Briefing the media, he said due to heavy rainfall in Chhattisgarh for the last three days, the inflow of floodwater of Mahanadi to the Hirakud reservoir has been substantially increased.

With the water level in Tel river rising, the Water Resources Department had opened six sluice gates of Hirakud dam yesterday. Although the inflow of floodwater of Tel river to Mahanadi has come down from 2.5 lakh cusecs to 1.75 lakh cusecs on Wednesday at Patharla, more floodwater is now entering the Hirakud reservoir, said the SRC. “Keeping this in view, the dam authorities have opened six more gates today morning to release the floodwaters from 12 gates. More gates will be opened later in the day to maintain the water level of the dam if heavy rainfall continues in the upper catchments,” he added.

Giving details of the dam, he said the water level of the dam till 12 noon was 628.23 feet against the optimum level of 630 feet while the inflow and outflow were 2,58,590 cusecs and 2,25,557 cusecs respectively.

Referring to the discharge of the floodwater in the lower catchments, he said while 4.90 lakh cusecs are discharged at Khairmal and 5,47,500 cusecs at Barmul, 6,43,390 cusecs is discharged at Mundali.

“The flood situation usually arises in the lower catchments of Mahanadi if 7 lakh cusecs are discharged from Mundali. Considering the present discharge of water at Mundali which is most likely to increase with the opening of more gates of Hirakud, a low to medium flood is expected in the next 36 hours,” Jena pointed out.

Talking to mediapersons, Chief Engineer of the dam Anand Chandra Sahu said the floodwater is being released from 18 gates and two more gates will be opened by 5 pm.

He said as the water level of the dam is nearing optimum level, the water level has to be brought down for the safety of the dam.

Six gates of the dam were opened yesterday, six more gates were opened at 10 am today and another six gates at 2 pm.