Bhubaneswar: After “No flood” assurances, the Special Relief Commissioner today alerted of a low to medium scale flood in the Mahanadi river system.
With torrential and incessant rain continuing to lash several parts of the state including upper catchment and lower areas of Mahanadi, a low to medium scale flood could be possible in the river system, the SRC said.
An official statement released by the SRC informed that the outflow at Khairamal was about 6.8 lakh cusec at 6 pm today. It is expected that 7.5 to 8.0 lakh cusec water is likely to pass at Munduli around afternoon tomorrow causing low to medium level flood in Mahanadi River system.
The SRC office has directed field functionaries to draw up an emergency plan to meet any eventuality in view of the flood situation.The motor vehicle inspectors (MVIs) and transport officials have also been asked to keep an eye on vehicular communication in flood prone areas.
Officials have been asked to depute mobile teams for close watch on vulnerable river and canal embankments, ensure satellite phone readiness, availability of emergency equipment, draw up evacuation plan for low lying areas, ensure readiness of country boats, cyclone shelters etc, the statement by the SRC office said.
Chief Engineer of Water Resources Department Kulamani Biswal informed that authorities of six districts- Kendrapara, Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur have been asked to be ready to meet any exigencies adding that public are urged to stay aware about the flood situation and cooperate.
On the other hand, ahead of release of first flood waters from the Hirakud Dam on July 24, the Chief Engineer of the dam today informed that by 12 pm, the water level in the dam was about 612.6 feet with inflow of about 1.41 lakh cubic metre water. "Due to heavy rainfall about 2.5 feet water level has increased in the dam in last 24 hours.” By tomorrow 9 am, we hope that the water level will touch 615 feet in the dam so if it continues to rain then water level could still be more by July 24,” the official informed.