Balasore, June 20: The district administration today heaved a sigh of relief as all the rivers flowing through the district, including the Subarnarekha river, showed receding trend.

Last evening, panic gripped villagers of north Balasore with the district administration remaining on its toes when the water level in the Subarnarekha river kept rising.

The river, having its origin in Jharkhand’s Chhotanagpur plateau, jumped the danger mark 10.36m by 9pm and its water level touched 10.66m by 2am.

However, the potential flood threat was evaded as the floodwater of this river had been receding since last night.

“After remaining constant at 10.66 metres at around 2am, the water level of the river began receding. It may go down below the warning level. This has been a great relief for the administration,” said additional district magistrate Sribatsa Jena.

There is no immediate flood threat from the Subarnarekha river, as there are no rains on the upper catchment area,” he said, adding no human casualty was reported so far.

However, several hundred acres of agriculture land of north Balasore has been submerged in water.

“Though the flood water entered some villages in Jaleswar, yet no village has been marooned. The damage to the agriculture land by the floodwater is yet to be assessed,” said sub-collector Ramesh Rout.

“We took stock of the situation and there is nothing alarming. The extent of the damages and losses to the recently sown paddy would be assessed by the agriculture department when the water recedes,” he said.

In another development, the bridge near Kudia under Basta block, which caved in on Saturday night under pressure of floodwater of the Jalaka river, has been temporarily repaired by the irrigation department. The road communication has been restored.

The villagers suffered a lot in the first flood of the season when the bridge on Basta-Baliapal road that establishes communication link among 15 to 20 villages of Baharda, Mathani and Brahmanda gram panchayats was dislodged.

“The bridge is restored temporarily with help of wooden logs and planks. It would serve the minimum conveyance requirements of the villagers till end of monsoon season. The permanent restoration of the bridge would be taken up in the winter season,” said Jena.