Bhubaneswar: The authorities of Hirakud dam in Odisha’s Sambalpur released season’s first floodwater on Sunday amid a steady rise in the water level at the reservoir following good rainfall on the upstream of the dam.
According to sources, the floodwater was initially released from sluice gate number 7 of the dam at 9 am. Four more gates will be opened later in a phased manner.
The release of floodwater will result in increasing the water level of the distributaries. Accordingly, an alert has also been sounded by the authorities, especially for the downstream areas. People have been asked to remain alert while entering into tributaries.
There are 98 gates to release floodwater from Hirakud Dam. While 64 are sluice gates, the rest 34 are crest gates. Each sluice gate has the capacity to discharge 16,440 cusec of water when the reservoir level is at 630 ft. Similarly, each crest gate has the potential to discharge 16,238 cusec of water.
Last year, the authorities had released the first floodwater from the dam on July 11.
