Cuttack: The release of Mahanadi floodwaters from Hirakud dam reached Mundali barrage on Sunday morning with a peak inflow of 10 lakh cusecs per second.
This was reported at a high-level meeting presided by Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena at Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar.
Briefing the media after the meeting, the SRC said that because of no rainfall in the upper catchments for the last 24 hours, the volume of the floodwater discharged from the dam has come down from the early morning of Sunday.
By 11 am, the water level of the dam was 627.95 feet. While the inflow of the floodwater into the dam was 8,22,584 cusecs per second, the outflow from 46 gates was 7,65,408 cusecs per second.
Stating that 10,11,000 cusecs of floodwater discharged at Khairmal on Saturday night has reached Mundali barrage on Sunday morning, the SRC expressed hope that there will be no further rise in the water level.
“The peak flow of the floodwater at Mundali will continue till Monday morning and recede thereafter. On the other hand, the discharged floodwater will reach Kendrapada district after eight hours and Puri after 10 hours. It is most likely that the excess release of floodwater will trigger flood situation in Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts,” Jena pointed out.
He further said that as the discharge of 7 lakh cusecs of the floodwater at Mundali usually triggers flood in Daya and Bhargavi, the two tributaries of Mahanadi, the floodwater has entered several villages in Kanas and Delang blocks in Puri district with two breaches in Daya river and one in Rajua river. The repair of the two breaches will be taken up immediately after the recession of the floodwaters, he added.
On the proactive measures taken to tackle the flood situation, the SRC said the ODRAF, NDRF and Fire Service personnel are carrying out rescue operations in the flood-hit areas.
