Bhubaneswar: The state government has alerted 11 districts about a likely flood in the Mahanadi river system following release of water from the Hirakud dam.

Special relief commissioner and disaster management secretary Bishnupada Sethi on Tuesday said: "Twenty-five of the 64 sluice gates of the dam have been opened due to heavy inflow of water following incessant rain in the upper catchment area of the dam. About eight lakh cusec of water will flow into the Mahanadi at Mundali in Cuttack by the morning of August 30. This may cause flood situation in several districts."

He said that authorities of 11 river basin districts - Sambalpur, Sonepur, Boudh, Nayagarh, Angul, Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda and Jajpur - have been asked to draw up emergency plans to meet any eventuality.

An official said there had been heavy rain in the upper catchment of the dam for the past three days. Around 1.4 lakh cusec water was being discharged from the Ravi Shankar dam and two other minor dams in the Mahanadi upstream in Chhattisgarh forcing the Hirakud dam authorities to open the gates to release water. At the time of filing the report, the water level in Hirakud was around 622ft, while the dam's capacity of 630 ft.

Water resources secretary P.K. Jena said: "The authorities in Chhattisgarh are water disproportionate to the amount of rain in the upper catchment area. This has forced authorities release surplus water from Hirakud into the Mahanadi river system. There has been exchange of information between the two states about the quantum of water released."