Mahanadi River
The
Mahanadi River is a river in eastern
India. It's one of the longest rivers in India and drains a substantial part of peninsular India. The Mahanadi rises on the Amarkantak plateau in central India in Chhatishgarh and flows east to the
Bay of Bengal. The Mahanadi river system drains most of the state of
Chhattisgarh, much of
Orissa, and portions of
Jharkhand and
Maharashtra. It has a length of about 860 km.
Near the city of
Sambalpur, a large dam - the Hirakud Dam - is built on the river. It has a high Gandhi Minar (tower) for inspection of the dam.
The Mahanadi rises in
Raipur District of Chhattisgarh. The fertile plains of the Mahanadi valley are home to intensive
rice cultivation. The Mahanadi and
Brahmani rivers together form a large
delta where they meet the Bay of Bengal. The city of
Cuttack lies at the head of this delta. This delta houses one of the largest
mangrove forests in peninsular India, and is a major rice producing area of the eastern coast of India.
Mahanadi Basin extends over an area of 141,589 km², which is nearly 4.3% of the total geographical area of the country. The basin lies in the states of Chhattisgarh (75,136 km²), Orissa (65,580 km²), Bihar (635 km²) and Maharashtra (238 km²). Its main tributaries are the Seonth, the Jonk, the Hasdeo, the Mand, the Ib, the Ong, and the Tel.
Physiographically, the basin can be divided into four regions, namely, the Northern Plateau, the
Eastern Ghats, the Coastal Plain and the Erosional Plains of Central Table Land. The first two are hilly regions. The coastal plain is the central interior region of the basin, traversed by the river and its tributaries. The main soil types found in the basin are red and yellow soils, mixed red and black soils, laterite soils and deltaic soils.
An average annual surface water potential of 66.9 km³ has been assessed in this basin. Out of this, 50.0 km³ is utilisable water. Culturable area in the basin is about 80,000 km², which is 4% of the total culturable area of the country.
Present use of surface water in the basin is 17.0 km³. Live storage capacity in the basin has increased significantly since independence. From just about 0.8 km³ in the pre-plan period, the total live storage capacity of the completed projects has increased to 8.5 km³. In addition, a substantial storage quantity of over 5.4 km³ would be created on completion of projects under construction. Additional storage to the tune of over 11.0 km³ would become available on execution of projects under consideration. The hydropower potential of the basin has been assessed as 627 MW at 60% load factor.
