Bhubaneswar: In view of possible medium flood in Mahanadi River and its distributaries following heavy rain in lower catchment areas, Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi on Tuesday asked Collectors of 13 districts to stay alert for any exigency.
District authorities of Bolangir, Boudh, Kalahandi, Subarnapur, Nayagarh, Khurda, Cuttack, Angul, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Jajpur have been asked to remain ready with plans to tackle possible flood situation.
More than two lakh people of 124 villages hit by rain and flood-like situation. In last 24 hours, Bolangir and Bargarh districts have received maximum amount rainfall with Bolangir block witnessing a record 555 mm of rain, he informed.
Meanwhile, Water Resources Secretary PK Jena said, “Around 11 lakh cusec water flowed at Khairamal at 9 pm yesterday. Taking the calculation into consideration, we expect that 10.5 lakh cusec to 11 lakh cusec water will pass through the Mundali barrage in Cuttack late night today. There is nothing much to worry as the river embankments are strong enough to accommodate this much quantity of water. A medium flood is expected in the system.”
“As per the Chief Minister’s directive, patrolling and monitoring of river embankments have been intensified. Also, one sluice gate of the Hirakud Dam will be opened for a few hours in a symbolic manner. There is nothing much to worry, but people must stay alert about possible flood,” he added.
"There is nothing to worry as of now. Our night patrolling is also on," said Biswa Mohan Acharya, chief engineer of Water Resources Department, Khurda.
Hirakud Dam released its season's first flood water at 11.24 AM today. The dam authorities has asked the people living in the lower catchment areas of Mahanadi riverbed to stay alert in view of rise in water level in the dam.
Sunil Nayak, chief engineer of Hirakud Dam, said that the water was released due to the heavy downpour and further release of water will be considered after reviewing the condition at the downstream region.
Meanwhile, Hirakud Dam water level has risen to 619.93 feet. While the average inflow is 2.35 lakh cusecs, average outflow is 15,451 cusecs in the river.
On the ongoing flood-like situation in the State, Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said that around 2 lakh people have been affected by the flood while around 50,000 people shifted to safer places. As many as 124 relief centres are presently working at different places to help the affected people, Sethi added.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday reviewed the situation at the Secretariat and held discussions with the Collectors through video conferencing. He directed the administration to intensify patrolling on banks of rivers to keep track of flood situation.