Bhubaneswar: The state government Thursday heightened monitoring across the Mahanadi basin in the wake of release of flood water from the Hirakud dam. The situation is being monitored across the 11 districts in the basin, an official siad.
By 6 pm Thursday, Hirakud dam was holding 622.67 feet of water against the full reservoir level of 630 feet. The inflow to the reservoir was 3,65,981 cusecs while the outflow is 3,31,124 cusecs, a dam official said.
About 6.5 lakh cusecs of water are now flowing through Mundali gauge station on the Mahanadi near Cuttack. The dam authority has closed five sluice gates in the evening as the inflow came down. Now, the flood waters releasing through 20 gates of Hirakud dam, the official said.
The dam authorities had Tuesday opened 25 sluice gates following the release of huge volumes of water in the river from Chhattisgarh.
This has led to steady rise in the level of the Mahanadi and its tributaries, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said. There is, however, no threat of major flooding despite and the situation is being monitored constantly, Sethi said. “We are maintaining a close watch. It is being monitored round-the-clock,” he said and added that the collectors of the 11 riparian districts and other officials are keeping watch on the situation.
All preparations have been made. The state government has deployed rescue teams in the vulnerable areas and has already deployed the ODRAF, NDRF and fire service personnel for immediate rescue operation in Puri, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Bhadrak districts, Sethi said.
Meanwhile, the flood water of Mahanadi and Tel rivers have inundated several parts of Boudh district, where a number of villages in Harabhanga block have been marooned and vast agricultural lands submerged, an official said. The water level in the Mahanadi at Naraj near Cuttack has risen to 25.87 metres, which is far below the danger mark of 26.41 metres, he said.
Mahanadi Tribunal’s maiden sitting Sept 29
New Delhi: The newly-constituted Mahanadi River Water Dispute Tribunal to hold its maiden sitting September 29. The Registrar of the Tribunal Wednesday sent notices to lawyers of Odisha and Maharashtra and Chief Secretaries of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand to appear before it September 29 and represent their case before the forum. The notices were received by the parties concerned Thursday. This comes after some initial formalities relating to the constitution of the Tribunal were recently completed, including nomination of representatives to the Tribunal from states and the filing of other documents. The Supreme Court had in January ordered constitution of the Mahanadi Tribunal despite opposition from the Union government and the Chhattisgarh government in the SC during hearings. PNN
