No Threat to Hirakud Dam in Odisha’s Sambalpur, Assures Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra

After the chief engineer of the Hirakud Dam sought a report from the counterpart of the Mahanadi River Basin regarding the monitoring of the Hirakud River embankment, there is now a big question about its safety. The chief engineer of Hirakud Dam said that in January 2020, members of the Dam Security Review Panel inspected the embankment. They gave various suggestions on the cracks and other problems in the dam and asked for a drone survey. After that, no further survey has been conducted.

On the other hand, during his visit to Sambalpur, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said that it is a routine process. The dam authority submits reports regularly to the dam safety authority. The dam authority takes action based on the recommendations of the dam safety organization. There is no threat to the dam embankment as of now, he said.

“I wrote a letter to the chief of the dam safety authority on 27th May 2022. It was based on the recommendation of the dam safety review panel. The inspection should be conducted at five years of intervals. Lastly, the inspection was conducted in 1999. In view of the situation, I wrote an expert committee to inspect the Hirakud dam. We also got a reply from the concerned authority on 16th August 2022 and sought some data before the visit to Hirakud dam,” said chief engineers of Hirakud Dam Ananda Chandra Sahu.

(With Inputs from Tribikram Pradhan)

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