In view of the rising water level of the Hirakud reservoir, the dam authorities have decided to open 20 sluice gates on Friday to release the excess water.
With the opening of the 20 gates, floodwaters from the reservoir would be released from a total of 24 gates, Hirakud Dam Chief Engineer Biswajit Mohanty told reporters on Thursday.
The dam authorities had opened 23 gates on June 24 to release the first-phase floodwaters. later, they closed 19 gates after monitoring the water level.
Asked about the possible flood situation in the lower catchments after the release of floodwaters, Mohanty said the water level in the reservoir is now 620 feet, only 10 feet below its optimum level.
“We estimate that the reservoir would receive around 3.5 lakh cusecs of water in the next 24 hours raising the water level to 623 feet. In view of this, we have decided to open 20 more gates to release 3.6 lakh cusecs of water besides 3.8 lakh cusecs water through the powerhouse. We expect that about 7 lakh cusecs of water would pass through the Mundali barrage in the lower catchments after the release of water from the reservoir,” he said.
He, however, said the water inflow at the Mundali barrage would have normalised by the time the released floodwater reaches the barrage since there is little possibility of fresh rains.
“We would later close the gates in phases after the water level drops down to 617 feet,” Mohanty said.