Hirakud Dam
BHUBANESWAR: With the low pressure over Bay of Bengal moving towards western India, the rainfall came down across Odisha on Monday leading to improvement in the situation in the low-lying areas affected by heavy downpour and flash-flood for the last three days.According to Special Relief Commission (SRC), heavy rain in upper catchment areas in Chhattisgarh has led to swelling of Mahanadi river. With the water level of the river at Naraj reaching 25.9 metre at 6 pm on the day against the danger level of 26.41 metre, the season’s first flood water from Mahanadi will be released through Hirakud dam at 11 am on Tuesday, said Water Resources Secretary PK Jena. The district administrations of Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Khordha and Puri have been asked to remain prepared.
“In view of the swelling Tel river and rain in the upper catchment of Mahanadi basin, the water level of Hirakud reservoir, which is close to 616 feet, may go up to 618 feet. We have planned to bring the level down to 610 feet in next 3-4 days by releasing 3 cusec water at a time,” Jena said.Similarly, Keonjhar, Jajpur and Bhadrak district administrations have been alerted in view of rising level of Baitarani river which crossed the danger level at Akhuapada.
Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said against the expectation of Mahanadi’s outflow of 7.5 to 8 lakh cusec at Munduli on Monday evening, the floodwater discharge at the point remained at 7.33 lakh cusec which is not alarming. Likewise, the water level of Baitarani at Akhuapada which was at 17.96 metre against the danger level of 17.86 metre is also not very alarming. “Water level in nine other major rivers is also below danger level,” the SRC said.
Earlier in the day, the SRC had informed that over 300 mm rainfall was recorded in 23 blocks while 200 mm rainfall was registered in 46 blocks during the last three days’ heavy downpour triggered by the low pressure in the Bay. The SRC said the situation has completely improved in four of 18 affected districts. Disruption of communication and damage to life and property in limited scale have been reported from Sambalpur, Angul, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Koraput, Boudh, Nayagarh and Sonepur districts, he added.
