Bhubaneswar, July 8: Odisha is likely to witness more rainfall after July 13, the regional meteorological office has said.

There is the possibly of another low-pressure system forming over the Bay of Bengal. However, there are practically no chances of floods in the Mahanadi basin because the chance of heavy rain in the upper catchment area of the river is next to zero.

Fear of possible inundation of the Mahanadi basin have been haunting the state following heavy rainfall in the upper catchment area of the river in Chhattisgarh over the past few days.

Talking to The Telegraph, Met director Sarat Chandra Sahu said: "The rainfall will intensify after July 13 due to the possible formation of a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal. However, there would be no heavy rainfall in the Mahanadi area. There is no fear of floods."

Sources in the water resources department said the state had no reason to worry since rainfall in the upper catchment areas of the Mahanadi was not alarmingly high.

Director, dam safety, Gopal Prasad Ray, told The Telegraph: "According to the Met report, the upper part of the Mahanadi basin is expected to receive 11mm rain in the next 24 hours at Andhiyakore. With this kind of rainfall, there is no threat of an imminent flood in the Mahanadi river basin."

Ray said the water level in the Hirakud reservoir was hovering around 597 feet as compared to it its full capacity of 630 feet. "Taking these factors into account, we can safely say that there is no threat of floods," he added.

Executive engineer, Hirakud dam, Harmohan Pradhan also echoed him. He said that inflow of water into the dam was less this time as compared to last year. "A large part of the dam's catchment area is yet to receive heavy rainfall," said Pradhan.

According to the data available with local meteorological centre, rainfall in the state in July so far has been 2 per cent less than normal. It was 23 per cent deficit in June.

The weather experts here said that state was currently witnessing rainfall due to an active trough line from Punjab to east-central Bay of Bengal across the centre of low-pressure area near Jharkhand, Odisha and northwest Bay of Bengal. The low-pressure area over northeast Madhya Pradesh was also contributing to the rainfall in state.

Rainfall varied in different parts of the state today with Cuttack registering the highest rainfall of 76.2mm followed by 28.8mm in Koraput, 16.4mm in Bhubaneswar, 10mm rain in Balangir and 9mm in Paradip.