Flood in Mahanadi’s low-lying areas likely

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Bhubaneswar: With a rise in the water level due to opening of 25 sluice gates at the Hirakud dam, a small to medium flood is likely to occur in the low-lying areas of the river Mahanadi along 11 districts through which the river passes through.
The water flow (608,560 cusecs) at the Mundali gauge station of the Mahanadi near Cuttack may increase to 8.5 lakh cusecs by midnight, Sethi said.
About 4,91,000 cusecs of water entered the Hirakud dam from upstream while 4 lakh cusecs of water flowed out. The water level of the Hirakud dam stood at 622.10 feet at 6 pm Wednesday while above 5 lakh cusecs of water flowed at Munduli by 6 pm, said water resource secretary PK Jena.
Appealing people not to panic, Jena said there is no possibility of opening of more gates even if the inflow to the reservoir reaches 5.7 lakh cusecs.
He, however, assured that the district administrations have been put on full alert since Tuesday and have been asked for taking adequate precautionary measures.
“We have already deployed the three Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) teams, two National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and the fire service to carry out immediate rescue operation in Puri, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Bhadrak districts,” Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) BP Sethi said. Collectors of 11 districts in the Mahanadi basin are also on high alert as more water is flowing into the river, he said.
Bhadrak Collector said that flood water had entered some areas in Tihidi, Bhadrak blocks and Bhadrak municipality areas Tuesday night, but the situation was not alarming.