Odisha on tenterhooks over threats of Mahanadi flood

Bhubaneswar/Sambalpur: Odisha may encounter a low flood in the Mahanadi river basin due to heavy downpours in the upper catchment areas and high water inflow in the Hirakud reservoir, officials said on Saturday.

The situation may exacerbate as another low-pressure area has formed over the northern Bay of Bengal and can intensify into a depression, prompting the Met office to issue a red alert of torrential rain in many districts.

Fourteen more gates of the Hirakud dam in western Odisha's Sambalpur district were opened in four phases during the day to release excess water into the Mahanadi's downstream areas in the state, which was pounded by heavy rain over the past few days due to depression.

At 7 pm, about 5.64 lakh cusecs of water, against an inflow of 5.3 lakh cusecs, was discharged through 34 gates.

The water level stood at 617 feet in the reservoir, which has a maximum storage capacity of 630 ft, Water Resources engineer-in-chief Bijay Kumar Mishra told reporters, adding that they would try to bring down the level to 616 ft.

He said 6 lakh cusecs of water would reach Mundali in Cuttack district on Sunday morning and over 7 lakh cusecs on Monday morning. The water released from Hirakud, the longest earthen dam of the world, generally takes 36 hours to reach the area, which had a flow 3.42 lakh cusecs at 6 pm. The Mahanadi, having a length of 494 km and a drainage area of 65,580 square km in the state, is also getting additional water from the Hati river and Tel tributary.

"After considering today's situation, we think that there can be a small level of flood in the Mahanadi system if more water is needed to be released on the basis of the rain situation in upper catchment areas and Chhattisgarh," Mishra said.