Hans News Service Bhubaneswar

Authoritiesof the Hirakud Dam in Sambalpur district released the season’s first floodwater on Thursday, after alerting districts downstream of the Mahanadi river, officials said. Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida was present on the occasion.

A total of four of the 67 dam gates were opened around 11 am, and 64,000 cusec of water is flowing downstream, Water Resources Department Engineer-in-Chief Dillip Kumar Rout said. Apart from the gates, 25,000 cusec water is also flowing through the power channel route while another 5,000 cusec is flowing in a canal system, Rout said. Another six gates of the dam are likely to be opened by this evening, he said. Rout said the water level in river Mahanadi at Mundali near Kataka was 2.24 lakh cusec at 11 am, which will come down to 50,000 cusec before the released water reaches the barrage.