Bhubaneswar: The Hirakud Dam authorities on Sunday opened four more gates of the reservoir to release excess water. With this, the excess floodwater is being released through 26 gates of the dam.
The authorities of Hirakud dam ruled out further opening of any more gates. Anand Sahu, chief engineer of Hirakud Dam said, “Due inflow of water, we have decided to open four more gates of Hirakud. However, since more inflow of water is unlikely, as of now we will keep the 26 gates open.”
Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty, Engineer-in-chief of the Water Resources Department said, “The inflow into Hirakud is 4.50 lakh cusecs and outflow is around 4.55 lakh cusecs through the 26 sluice gates. Around seven lakh cusecs of floodwater are flowing at Mundali.”
According to Mohanty, the situation has arisen owing to heavy rainfall activities in Mahanadi downstream and upstream catchment areas in Chhattisgarh.
“We are operating the gates of Hirakud as per the inflow from upstream. There is no flood threat in Odisha. We are monitoring everything and working in coordination with the Special Relief Commissioner,” Mohanty added.
