Security Breach! Drone-Captured Visuals Of Hirakud Dam Restricted Zone Goes Viral

Sambalpur: In what appears to be a major security breach, drone video of the restricted operation gallery of Hirakud Dam in Odisha’s Sambalpur and visuals of the opening of sluice gates have reportedly gone viral on various social media platforms.

“This should not have happened. Who shot the video and shared it on social media is yet to be ascertained,” said Chief engineer of Upper Mahanadi Basin Sushil Kumar Behera. 

Sources said that the visuals were captured from both Burla and Hirakud sides despite round-the-clock security at the reservoir. While drone visuals were posted by some bloggers, it is being suspected that the other video of the operation gallery was shot from a mobile phone when floodwater was released from the dam.

On Sunday, the dam authorities opened 20 sluice gates, including 14 on the left spillway and six on the right spillway, to release season’s first floodwater. The water level was rising in the dam after heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas in the last few days.

Sources further said that the water level of the reservoir stood at 618 ft against its intake capacity of 630 ft with current inflow at 2,57,055 cusecs and outflow of 3,47,628 cusecs this morning. Water level of the Mahanadi is also rising after the release of excess floodwater. Water discharge at Khairmal was expected to be 4.50 lakh cusec by Monday morning and the flow further down at Mundali is likely to reach 5 lakh cusec on Tuesday.

According to the Water Resources department, there is no flood threat in Odisha as of now.

The government, however, is keeping a close watch on the situation with the India Meteorological Department predicting formation of a fresh system is being predicted on July 31 and heavy rainfall in many parts of the state over next four days under its influence.