BHUBANESWAR: Flooding of the Mahanadi river system is likely to improve as inflow of water to the Hirakud dam has decreased during the last 24 hours. Official sources said that the Hirakud dam authorities closed four more gates on Monday morning following decrease in the inflow of water to the reservoir.
While 4.94 lakh cusecs of water entered the dam in the morning, the outflow through 36 gates was 6.65 lakh cusecs. The water level of the reservoir stands at 627.29 feet as against its optimum capacity of 630 feet.
Meanwhile, life was thrown out of gear in several areas in Khurda district as flood water entered five panchayats in Balipatna block. Swelling of the Mahanadi at Mundali in Cuttack district has resulted in flooding of the Bainchuan and Bhargavi rivers. Hundreds of acres of agricultural land have been submerged in flood water.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will make an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of the state in the afternoon and review the situation at a high level meeting thereafter at the Lok Seva Bhavan here.
Over 14.5 lakh people in 3256 villages of 20 districts of the state have been affected by the swelling waters which inundated a large area in the coastal districts. The government evacuated over 20,000 people to flood shelters from vulnerable areas.
The state government launched a massive rescue and relief operation as over 2.65 lakh people in 340 villages remained marooned. As per a preliminary assessment, as many as 10,382 houses have been damaged and 1,68,904 hectares of crop area affected due to the floods. The death toll in the floods has reached 17.
The flooding of the Mahanadi and other major rivers has inflicted massive damage on the road infrastructure in the state. While 107 roads in 11 districts have been cut off, the floods have caused 32 breaches on the river embankments.