SAMBALPUR: The Hirakud dam released this season’s first flood water into Mahanadi river on Wednesday.The water level of Hirakud Dam Reservoir (HDR) stood at 618.69 ft against Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 630 ft when water was released through sluice gate 7 of Left Spillway of the dam at 11.40 am. However, the authorities closed the sluice gate at 2 pm considering the heavy flow of floodwater on the downstream of the dam.
Superintending Engineer of Hirakud Dam Circle, Burla Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty said the sluice gate was closed as there was heavy flow of flood water in Mahanadi on the downstream at Khairmal in Boudh district due to incessant rainfall in the catchment of Tel river. Tel is a tributary of Mahanadi river.
“We are optimistic that the flood water will recede at Khairmal by Thursday morning. We will assess the situation on Thursday evening and take a decision on opening the sluice gate again after considering the inflow of water into the HDR and the flow of flood water on the downstream,” Mohanty said.
As at 6 pm on the day, the water level of HDR stood at 619.47 ft. The inflow of water into the reservoir was 1,82,225 cusec and the outflow was 15,382 cusec. The rainfall in the upstream of the dam in the last 24 hours was recorded at 58.54 mm while in the downstream, 43.45 mm of rain has been registered.
There are 64 sluice gates including 24 on the right and 40 on the left side of the dam to release flood water. Each sluice gate has the capacity to discharge 16,440 cusec of water when reservoir level, also termed as danger level, is 630 ft. This apart, there are 34 crest gates, 13 on the right and 21 on left side, which have the potential to discharge 16,238 cusec of water, each at the full reservoir level of 630 ft.