Bhubaneswar: The Hirakud dam authorities closed five more gates on Saturday even as the Odisha government said that there is no flood threat in the lower catchments of Mahanadi.
According to reports, out of the 20 gates opened on Thursday, 10 gates were closed on Friday. Five more gates were closed on Saturday due to less inflow of floodwater into the dam.
Talking about the flood situation in Mahanadi, Principal Secretary of Water Resources, Pradip Jena said that keeping the volume of inflow of water into the dam, the floodwater will be released from the five gates and if necessary, more gates will be closed in phases. “After all, we have to keep the water level of the dam between 619 feet and 620 feet by August 21 as per the Rule Curve,” he added.
Jena also said that with the closure of five gates of the dam, there is no threat of flood in the downstream of Mahanadi.
A release by the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) on Saturday said that the water level of the Hirakud dam was 620.08 feet by 12 pm while the inflow and outflow of the floodwater were 95,905 cusecs per second.
Besides, the discharge of the floodwater at Khairmal during the period was 3 lakh cusecs per second while it was 3,75,625 cusecs and 4,49,221 cusecs per second at Barmul and Mundali barrage respectively.
Deputy Relief Commissioner Pravat Mahapatra informed that floodwaters in the lower catchments have started receding at a faster rate due to drastic fall in the water level of Mahanadi and its tributaries. However, some areas of Kendrapara and Puri districts are still under floodwaters, he added.
