Hirakud dam

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 17: The recent rainfall in Maharashtra has helped the water level of Hirakud reservoir reach its peak resulting in increased hydropower production both in Chiplima and Burla.

“With increase of the water level, hydropower production both in Chiplima and Burla has been increased. While the power unit at Burla is producing 248mw, the one in Chiplima is producing 41mw. The Hirakud reservoir irrigates 75 lakh hectares of land,” said an official.

“The dam is now full. Water level stands at 629.19 feet today. While there is an inflow of 1.06 lakh cusec of water, outflow from the reservoir is 1.18 lakh cusec. We have opened five sluice gates to release excess water. Though catchments of the Mahanadi reservoir has received less rain fall in comparison to the average annual rainfall, we have been able to store maximum water in the reservoir,” said officials of the water resource department.

The Seonath river, which originates in Chhattisgarh, has 250sqkm of catchment area in Maharashtra.

The river merges with the Mahanadi traversing a length of 350km.

“On September 6, we received 46,000 cusec of water from the Seonanth and it reached 1,94,000 cusec on September 9. Now we are receiving 56,000 cusec of water. This has increased the water capacity of our reservoir,” said an official.

Apart from the Seonath, 80,000 cusec of water was released by the Rabi Shankar reservoir in Chhattisgarh which too helped the Hirakud reservoir.

This year, the upstream of the Mahanadi river system has received 809.34mm rainfall while the downstream has so far received 774 mm.