Odisha: Hirakud Dam Opens 20 Gates To Release Season’s First Floodwater

Bhubaneswar: Hirakud dam, built over the Mahanadir river in Odisha’s Sambalpur, on Sunday released the season’s first floodwater through 20 gates. The dam authorities decided to flush out excess water by opening 20 gates in a phased manner.

The decision to open the gates of Hirakud Dam was taken in view of the heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas and the inflow of water into the dam.

By 6 am on Sunday, the water level of Hirakud stood at 616.93 feet. While the inflow of water into the reservoir was 3, 16,000 cusec, the outflow from the dam was recorded at 40,126 cusec.

As per tradition, sluice gate No. 7 was opened first after a puja was performed. First four gates were opened at 9 am.

The dam authorities had created massive awareness through the public address system ahead of the opening of the gates asking people not to enter the river bed during the release of floodwater.

The dam authorities said, because of the opening of 20 gates of Hirakud dam, the discharge level at the Khairmal measurement centre would be around 4.50 lakh cusecs on July 29 morning and the discharge at Mundali would be around 5.00 lakh cusecs by July 30.

The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) of Odisha, Satyabrata Sahoo, instructed to Collectors of Sambalpur, Sonepur, Nayagarh, Puri, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada to alert the people of Mahandi river side not to enter to Mahanadi. Animals shall also not be allowed for gazing close to the river.

The Collectors were also requested to remain alert and monitor the situation.