Odisha: 20 gates of Hirakud Dam opened to release excess water

Heavy rain in the upper catchment area of the Mahanadi River in the last couple of days prompted the Odisha government to open six more sluice gates of Hirakud Dam, while alerting the districts downstream, a senior official said.

A total of 20 of the 67 gates of the dam have been opened, and through those around 3 lakh cusecs of water is flowing, sources said.

Water Resources engineer-in-chief Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty said an alert has been sounded in districts downstream of Mahanadi.

''Leave of officials have been cancelled and they have been asked to keep a close watch on the situation,'' he said.

He claimed there is no fear of floods even as water is being released from the dam.

The upper catchment area recorded 72 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, while the volume of rainfall downstream was 46 mm, an official at the reservoir said. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast that heavy rainfall will continue to lash Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts under the influence of the well-marked low pressure area that has moved to eastern Madhya Pradesh.

According to the Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, in the last 24 hours, Odisha recorded 23.8 mm of rainfall. As many as six blocks in the state have received more than 100 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.

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