The Odisha government has ruled out the possibility of a high flood on the Mahanadi river system as the deep depression crossed the Odisha coast close to Puri on Monday morning.

However, due to its impact, many parts of Odisha are likely to witness heavy rainfall in the next 12 hours.

Malkangiri district in southern Odisha witnessed heavy rainfall during the last 24 hours, prompting the government to depute senior officials to supervise and coordinate the government relief and rescue operation. Another southern Odisha district Koraput also witnessed heavy rainfall.

Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Monday discussed the government’s preparedness to deal with the situation caused by the heavy rainfall with revenue minister Suresh Pujari. The Malakangiri district administration announced that all the schools and Anganwadi centres would remain closed on Tuesday because of the heavy rains expected.

The IMD in a release said: “Deep depression crossed Odisha coast close to Puri during 10.30am-11.30am on Monday. It is very likely to move further northwestwards across interior Odisha maintaining its intensity of deep depression till evening and weaken gradually into a depression by midnight. Thereafter, it is very likely to move west-northwest wards across north Chhattisgarh during subsequent 24 hours as depression.”

Nearly nine districts of Odisha were put on a high alert following heavy rainfall reported due to the high depression. Even if a flood-like situation occurs on the Mahanadi river system, it will be a kind of flash flood in nature, the government said.

The IMD has issued red warnings for Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Khurda, Puri, Balangir and Boudh. As many as 18 teams of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force have been deployed in these districts’ vulnerable points. Bhubaneswar, the capital city, also witnessed rainfall throughout the day.

Engineer-in-chief of water resources, Chandra Sekhar Padhi said: “Even if there is heavy rainfall tonight on the lower embankment of the Mahanadi, we are hopeful to release the water through Mundali barrage at Cuttack. We don’t see any threat of a major flood on the Mahanadi river system The IMD has forecast 76-100 mm rainfall in downstream of Hirakud”

Following heavy rainfall, the focus has shifted to the
districts of Malkangiri and Koraput. The Malkangiri block received the highest rainfall, 252 mm, during the last 24 hours.