Bhubaneswar: State Water Resources secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena Friday ruled out any possibilities of flood in the lower catchment areas of Mahanadi river.
Jena said the inflow into the Hirakud reservoir has receded since there is no rainfall in the upper catchment area of the river in the last 24 hours.
The Secretary said the flood water released Thursday was eight lakh cusecs per second which was further reduced to 4.58 lakh cusecs per second yesterday.
It is expected to be around 5.50 lakh cusecs per second at Munduli, near Cuttack today and would not pose any flood threat in the downstream, he said.
The Hirakud dam authorities, he said, have been asked Friday to close ten of the 20 gates opened yesterday in view of the reduced inflow of water to the reservoir.
The rest of the gates would be closed in phases considering the weather condition in upper catchment areas of the river, he said.
The state government had earlier alerted collectors of eleven districts to be ready for a possible flood and take all precautionary measures including evacuation of the people from the low lying areas to safer place.
