Odisha Govt Issues Flood Alert In Mahanadi

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday issued flood alert in Mahanadi following extremely heavy rainfall in upper catchments in the neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

Talking to mediapersons here, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said as informed by the principal secretary, Water Resources, the authorities of the Hirakud Dam would release about 4 lakh cusecs of water per second from 25 gates by Tuesday evening.

Keeping this in view, collectors of the 11 riverside districts especially Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Puri including Sambalpur have been directed to take preemptive measures and if necessary, evacuate people from the low-lying areas. The five other districts where the flood alert have been sounded are Subarnapur, Boudh, Nayagarh, Angul and Khurda, he added

To meet any eventuality, the NDRF, ODRAF and the Fire Brigade personnel have been kept in readiness, he added.

Stating that about 8-8.5 lakh cusecs of water of Mahanadi would reach the Mundali barrage by Thursday morning, Sethi said efforts are on to maintain the water flow at 8 lakh cusecs of water at the barrage to regulate flood in the lower catchments of Mahanadi delta.

He, however, said that due to flood in Salandi river, floodwater would enter some areas of Tihidi block and Bhadrak municipality in Bhadrak district.

Talking to the media, chief engineer of the Hirakud Dam, Jyotirmay Rath said due to heavy rainfall in Chhattisgarh since last three days, the authorities of the Ravi Shankar dam have released 1.40 lakh cusecs of water per seconds and 60,000 cusecs of water per second from two other projects.

“Since it will take approximately 48 hours to reach the Hirakud reservoir, we have released at least 3.5 lakh cusecs of water per second through 20 gates. While 2,51,145 lakh cusecs of water per second are being released from 20 gates, another one lakh cusecs of water per second are being released from the hydropower project. Keeping the volume of the inflow at 1,34,727 cusecs per second, we have decided to open five more gates in the evening,” he added.

While 6 lakh cusecs of water are expected to reach at Mundali barrage by Tuesday evening, about 8 lakh cusecs of water will reach the barrage by Thursday morning, he informed.

Asked whether this would trigger flood in the lower catchments, he said there is no such possibility as there has been a meagre rainfall of about 2 mm in the lower catchments in the last 24 hours.