20 gates of Hirakud Dam opened to release excess water

Five more sluice gates of Hirakud Dam was opened today, in addition to the 15 spillways yesterday, to release excess water into river Mahanadi, an official said.

Heavy rainfall in Odisha over the past week had led to a rise in water level in the dam.

After draining out 2.5 lakh cusecs of floodwater through 15 sluice gates yesterday, the authorities decided to open five more spillways around 2am today in view of the full moon on July 27, said Jyotirmaya Rath, the chief engineer of Hirakud Dam.

"As full moon leads to swelling of seas, water from the reservoir cannot be effectively drained into the river during that period. Keeping that in mind, we decided to open five more gates after midnight," he said