ROURKELA: Three days of intermittent heavy rains caused Brahmani river to rise to near-danger level at its starting point Rourkela, leading to panic among residents of low-lying areas on Friday.
The river started swelling from Thursday evening after receiving floodwater from its tributaries Sankh and Koel rivers. By 7 am on Friday, the water level in Brahmani rose to 176 meter against the danger mark of 178.420 meter. The water level of Brahmani kept on rising and till 12 pm, the river was flowing menacingly at 177.250 meter, just 1.117 meter below the danger mark. The rise in water level of Brahmani was attributed to release of floodwater from Mandira dam of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) through Sankh river along with excess inflow from Koel river.
RSP sources informed that on Friday morning, the water level of Mandira dam reached 686.60 feet against the reservoir’s maximum capacity 690 feet. Subsequently, the dam authorities released 49,356 cusec of water against the inflow of 48,208 cusec.
Later in the day, the low-lying pocket of Balughat in Rourkela was partly submerged with floodwater entering a few houses. The flooding sparked panic among local residents and some families were temporarily moved to safety.
However, the situation did not aggravate further as the inflow from Koel river gradually decreased in absence of rain throughout Friday and Brahmani’s swelling was arrested. By 6 pm on Friday, the situation slightly improved with gradual drop in water level of Brahmani.
RSP sources said by evening, Mandira dam was releasing 34,220 cusec of water against the inflow of 29,504 cusec to help improve the situation.