Sambalpur: 20 gates of Hirakud Dam were opened

Sambalpur: Due to heavy rains in the upper reaches for the past 3 days, the inflow of water into the Hirakud reservoir has increased. As the water inflow touched 4 lakh cusecs on Friday, 10 more gates have been opened to keep the water level under control. While 10 gates were opened on Thursday, another 10 gates were opened in 2 phases on Friday. However, the Hirakud Dam authorities said that the situation is under complete control. At 9:00 pm on Thursday, the water level in Hirakud was 613.79 feet, and by 6:00 am on Friday, it was 615.17 feet. Four more sluice gates were opened between 7 am and 8 am on Friday. But by 9 am, the average inflow had crossed 4 lakh 20 thousand cusecs and the water level was rising. As a result, at 11:30 p.m. orders were issued to open six more gates. Thirteen sluice gates of left spillway and 7 sluice gates of right spillway were opened by 12 noon. At 6 pm on Friday, the water level in Diamond was 616.15 feet. At that time, an average of 3 lakh 93 thousand 323 cusecs of water was entering the reservoir while 3 lakh 40 thousand 890 cusecs of water was being discharged through various channels. Out of that, 3 lakh 6 thousand 980 cusecs of water was being released to the river through 20 gates of the spillway. Likewise, 30,843 cusecs were released through Power Channel, 2,494 cusecs through Bargarh main canal, 300 cusecs through sason main canal, 21 cusecs in Sambalpur distributary, industrial 252 cusecs of water was withdrawn for the plant.

At that time, 30,000 cusecs of water was flowing in Belgaon, 87,000 cusecs in Parthala, 3,75,000 cusecs in Khairmal, 1,89,000 cusecs in Barmul and 3,90,000 cusecs in Mundali. In the last 24 hours, an average of 20.80 mm in the upper end of the hirakud and 7.27 mm in the lower end has rained, according to the source of the control room of the Hirakud dam. In relation to the current flood situation, Hirakud Dam Chief Engineer Anand Chandra Sahu said that the situation is under control. There is no need to open the gate further unless there is too much water coming from the top. He informed that there is no possibility of more water coming as the rain has reduced. Similarly, Sambalpur District Collector Ananya Das said that the government and administration are ready for all kinds of situations. The situation is being monitored.