Team visits Hirakud dam for spillways construction

A 12-member high level team comprising members of the World Bank, Central Water Commission and Dam Safety department today visited the Hirakud Dam to conduct a survey for the construction of the proposed additional spillways to discharge flood waters from the largest reservoir of Odisha.
There are 98 gates through which flood water is released from the Hirakud 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.
"As the CWC has revised the flood water release capacity of all major dams and recommended to raise the water discharging capacity of the dams to 1.5 times of the current capacity, the team inspected Hirakud Dam to see how to meet the target," said Chief Engineer of Hirakud Dam Project, Biswajit Mohanty.

The spillways have been proposed to raise the flood water discharge capacity of Hirakud to around 18 lakh cusec from the existing 12 lakh cusec.
"If additional spillway is constructed and the flood water is released from the spillway, the flood situation in Sambalpur could also be controlled," Mohanty said.
"Sambalpur witnesses flood like situation whenever 30 gates of the Hirakud Reservoir are opened and 8 lakh cusec water is released. If 5 to 6 lakh cusec of water could be released from another way, the effect of the flood could be reduced remarkably in Sambalpur," said Mohanty.

The 12-member team headed by Dr B R K Pillai, Director, Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP), visited the dam site and selected two locations on the right dyke of the dam and as many locations on the left.

The officials of the Hirakud Dam Project accompanied the team. There were members from the World Bank and Central Water Commission.
"The team will submit the proposal regarding the construction of the spillway to the state government by December. We will conduct a survey and prepare the estimate for the construction of spillway after the proposal is approved by the state government," Mohanty said.
Executive engineer of the Hirakud Dam project, Joshobanta Parida said, "The Central Water Commission had submitted a proposal for the construction of the spillways at Hirakud Dam to raise its flood water discharge capacity. The team has come here to conduct survey whether the proposal is feasible. This is in the preliminary stage."

The work will be carried out under DRIP of the World Bank which will provide the fund.