Sambalpur: The environment ministry has given clearance for construction of additional spillways for the safety of the Hirakud dam.

The state government will construct five additional spillways at an estimated expenditure of Rs 369.53 crore for release of excess flood water.

The spillways will be constructed at the left dyke of the dam and its water will reach river Mahanadi via Gujatala.

The state has taken up this huge project for the safety of the dam according to the recommendation of the Central Water Commission.

The project work will start shortly after the rainy season and will be completed within 30 months, project engineer Basanta Kumar Rout told The Telegraph. The state government has created a separate division for the project known as spillway division under the leadership of Rout.

The construction work has been entrusted to Tata project. The vice-president of the Tata project, Goutam Saha, and project engineer Rout, on behalf of the state government signed the agreement in presence of officials of various departments of Hirakud dam at Ashok Nivas on July 20.

Once complete, the spillway will have the capacity to discharge an additional 7 lakh cusecs of water. Its present capacity is 15 lakh cusecs through its 64 sluice gates and 34 crest gates, Rout said.

Technical experts of Tata have already reached Hirakud and started preparing the ground work.