Monsoon: Odisha gets heavy rainfall; no flood threat to state as of now

BHUBANESWAR:  The Odisha government on Sunday maintained that there is no flood threat as of now though most parts of the State received heavy rainfall during the last 24 hours.

Engineering-in-Chief of Water Resources department Jyotirmaya Rath told mediapersons here that there will be rainfall in the upper catchments of Mahanadi river as predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). 

“There has been only 14 mm rainfall in the upper catchments of Mahanadi in the last 24 hours. As per IMD forecast, there will be around 75 mm  rainfall in the next three days. We have kept our staff ready to deal with the situation,” he added.

Stating that there is no possibility of flood in the lower catchments of Mahanadi river as of now, Rath said that the water level of Hirakud dam has remained at 600.79 feet as against the optimum level of 630 feet. 

“While the inflow of dam water is 2,300 cusecs per second, 13,000 cusecs per second is released through the power channel. Besides, there has only been 10 mm rainfall in the lower catchments of Mahanadi in the last 24 hours,” he added.

Rath said that all major rivers are flowing much below the danger mark and water level of reservoirs are being constantly monitored.

Meanwhile, the office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) informed that as per the special bulletin issued by the IMD, the low pressure area over Northwest Bay of Bengal, adjoining areas and Gangetic West Bengal persists.

It is likely to move Westnorthwest wards across Odisha, Jharkhand and North Chhattisgarh during the next two to three days. 

The SRC office informed that the South West monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Odisha.

Monsoon has covered Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Angul, Dhenkanal and remaining parts of Bargarh, Balangir, Sonepur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj districts.

SRC PK Jena in a letter to all collectors asked them to closely monitor the situation and remain prepared to tackle water-logging in low lying areas including in urban places.

He asked them to keep the district administration alert to meet any situation.