Hirakud Dam To Release First Floodwater of Season on Thursday; Four Gates To Open Initially
The inflow into the reservoir was recorded at 2.62 lakh cusecs.
Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Hirakud Dam will release the first floodwater of the current monsoon season on Thursday, with four sluice gates scheduled to be opened at 11 am, the state water resources department said on Wednesday.
The release of water is part of the annual reservoir management exercise aimed at maintaining adequate storage capacity to accommodate future inflows during the monsoon. More gates will be opened gradually depending on the inflow, with the discharge expected to be increased up to 1 lakh cusecs in phases.
The water level at the Hirakud reservoir in Sambalpur district stood at 611.23 feet on Wednesday, against the full reservoir level of 630 feet. The inflow into the reservoir was recorded at 2.62 lakh cusecs.
The department said the planned release is unlikely to cause flooding in downstream areas as the river discharge at Mundali in Cuttack district has been declining. The discharge at Mundali fell from 5.54 lakh cusecs on Tuesday to 4.80 lakh cusecs on Wednesday and is expected to decrease further in the coming days.
Engineer-in-Chief of the Water Resources Department Dillip Kumar Rout said the timing of the release was planned after assessing the downstream river situation and weather conditions.
“Since there is currently a minor flood of around 5 lakh cusecs downstream, which has reduced to about 4.80 lakh cusecs, conditions are favourable. We will start operations at Hirakud reservoir tomorrow,” Rout told reporters.
He said four gates would be opened in the first phase, releasing around 1 lakh cusecs of water into the Mahanadi River. “The objective is to slightly lower the reservoir level and create additional storage space for the subsequent spells of monsoon rainfall,” he added.
A high-level meeting on flood management in the Mahanadi basin is underway at Hirakud under the chairmanship of the Central Water Commission. The Flood Crisis Management Team is reviewing the operation of the reservoir during the rainy season.
Senior engineers from Odisha and Chhattisgarh are participating in the meeting to coordinate dam management and ensure effective handling of monsoon flows in the Mahanadi basin.
Officials said the reservoir operation has been planned keeping in mind that Odisha generally receives multiple spells of heavy rainfall during the monsoon season, often triggered by low-pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal.