Sambalpur, April 14: A 12-member team of World Bank, Central Water Commission (CWC) and the dam safety department of the state government today visited Hirakud dam to conduct a survey and explore the possibility of having additional spillways to discharge flood water from the dam.

At present, there are 98 gates to release water from the dam. Of these, 64 are sluice gates and 34 are crest gates. Around 12 lakh cusec water is released from the 98 gates at a time.

"The Central Water Commission has revised the flood water release capacity of all major the dams. The commission has recommended to raise water discharging capacity of the dams to 1.5 times the current capacity," said chief engineer of Hirakud dam project Biswajit Mohanty.

The spillways have been proposed to raise the floodwater discharge capacity of Hirakud dam to around 18 lakh cusec from 12 lakh cusec.

"Floods can be controlled with the additional spillways," said Mohanty.

"Sambalpur witnesses a flood-like situation whenever 30 gates of the reservoir are opened and eight lakh cusec water is released. If five to six lakh cusec could be released from the other way, the effect of the flood could be minimised remarkably," said Mohanty.

The team visited the dam site and selected two locations on the right dyke and two locations on the left dyke of the dam. Of the 12 members, three members were from World Bank and four from Central Water Commission.

"The team will submit its proposal to construct additional spillways to the state government by December. We will conduct a survey and prepare an estimate for construction of the spillways after the proposal is approved by the state government," Mohanty said.

Executive engineer of the Hirakud dam project Joshobanta Parida said: "Central Water Commission had submitted a proposal for construction of the spillways at Hirakud dam to raise its flood water discharge capacity. The team has come here to conduct a survey to ascertain whether the proposal is feasible."

Apart from selecting the location, the team will also conduct a survey to plan how to further improve the dam. The work will be carried out under the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project of World Bank, which will fund the project.