First floodwaters of Mahanadi reach Naraj

Cuttack: The first floodwaters of Mahanadi released by the Hirakud Dam authorities on Friday last, reached the Naraj barrage this morning.

It took nearly 36 hours for the floodwaters to reach Naraj from Burla covering a distance of about 300 km, sources in the Water Resources department said.

Meanwhile, the Cuttack district administration has taken elaborate precautionary measures. The control rooms at Mundali, Naraj and Jobra barrages have been asked to keep a close watch on the floodwaters and provide information round the clock.

The Hirakud Dam authorities had released the first floodwater of Mahanadi through 10 sluice gates on August 5. But considering the inflow of excess floodwaters from the upper catchments, they had opened two more gates yesterday again opened and four more gates this morning.

The Cuttack district administration had earlier assured the people in the district not to panic as there would be no flood threat in the lower catchments of the river despite release of floodwaters from Hirakud dam.