Bhubaneswar, June 25: Power production has stopped in the Indravati Hydropower plant following incessant rain that triggered flash floods in the Hati river and its tributaries in southern Odisha.

Officials said that if they generated power from the hydropower project, more water would be released and it would further aggravate the existing flood situation. “On an average, we produce 450MW of power from the hydropower plant. But we have stopped the production since yesterday. The power production will start once the flood situation improves. However, the stoppage of power generation has not led to any power crisis in the state,” said an official of the Odisha energy department.

Many pockets of Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts have been badly hit by the flash floods. The electric and telephone poles have been uprooted at several place and roads have been damaged.

An official said farmers had lost their harvested paddy kept in fields and their houses. Hundreds of thatched houses have been swept away by the floods. Around 15,000 people have been hit by the flash flood.

Vehicular traffic on NH-26 was disrupted as the Hati river was flowing over the bridge at Junagarh. Officials have been working overtime to restore communication since Sunday, but are yet to succeed.

Similarly, communication between Junagarh, Dharamgarh and Nabarangpur was cut off following damage to roads at many places. Kalamapur block in Kalahandi district was the worst affected. Many parts of the block have been cut off from the rest of the district. Similarly, many villages at Junagarh block in Kalahandi district have been partially submerged.

The Odisha government has asked the collectors to provide cooked food to the people in the affected areas. Revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro said: “All efforts have been made to help the people in distress. The local administration has been provided aid to overcome the problems.”

The district administration has been asked to send medical teams to the flood-affected areas. The state administration was relieved after the local met office said heavy rainfall would occur only at one or two place in the interior parts of Odisha.

But the water is still rising in Vanshdhara river at Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district.