Flood-like situation is looming over 10 districts of Odisha with heavy rainfall in the upper and lower catchment areas of the Mahanadi river, officials said on Tuesday.

The state government also said the next 48 hours would be critical for people living in the low-lying areas of the Mahanadi river basin.

The government has decided to open another 14 gates of the Hirakud reservoir on Tuesday night, indicating that more water would pass through the lower catchment of the Mahanadi river system.

The prediction of more rainfall in many parts of Odisha by the India Meteorological Department in the next two days has put the Odisha government on a high alert to face the eventualities caused by the impact of possible flood. Now all attempts are being made to minimise the impact of flood by regulating the water flow from the Hirakud reservoir.

Though 10 districts have been put on high alert particularly the five districts — Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara — are likely to face the wrath of the floods. Water has started entering villages of these coastal districts. As many as 167 villages in four blocks of Narasinghpur, Banki, Tigiria and Dambada in Cuttack district have already been hit by the floods.

The IMD’s forecast about formation of another low pressure over north Bay of Bengal from August 19, has set alarm bells ringing in the government.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday reviewed the flood situation and asked officials to work on a “zero casualty” mode. Reviewing the flood situation with collectors of 10 districts through video conferencing he empowered the district collectors to take decisions on shut down of schools in flood affected areas, evacuation of people from the low-lying areas and opening of relief camps.

“All lives are important to us and the state government has always adopted the policy of ‘zero casualty’ during disasters in the past days,” Naveen said.

Engineering-in-chief, water resources, Bijay Mishra told reporters, “We moderate the water flow using the gates of the Hirakud reservoir. Earlier, we had opened 26 gates. Now we have decided to open another 14 gates of the reservoir. The water level in the reservoir has already crossed 626 feet against its full reservoir capacity of 630 feet. As the upper catchment of the Mahanadi witnessed a heavy rainfall, the amount of water entering the reservoir has increased. We need to monitor and moderate the inflow and outflow from the reservoir.”

The current inflow of water into the reservoir is 7,70,397 cusecs and the outflow 4,52,744 cusecs.

Special relief commissioner P.K. Jena said: “The collectors have also been authorised to procure fodder that is needed for their districts. The district collectors have been asked to evacuate people from the low lying areas and can open relief camps and distribute food packets. There is no cap on it.”

Jena said: “We have mobilised nine units each of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 44 Odisha Fire Service Response Teams.”