Sambalpur, July 28: The monsoon’s first flood water of the River Mahanadi from Odisha’s Hirakud Dam has been released on Sunday.
As many as seven sluice gates of the Hirakud Reservoir in Sambalpur were opened up in the morning to the left spillway following puja on the dam.
After performing the special rituals, the sluice gate No.7 gate of Hirakud dam was opened first, and later six more gates were opened up in a phased manner to exit the surplus water entering the reservoir from the upper stream of the Mahanadi
Alerts have been sounded by the dam authorities, especially for the downstream areas in view of the opening of the spillways.
Opening of more gates will be decided on the inputs of the water from the distributaries and the rate of rainfall in Chhattisgarh, said a dam officials