Mahanadia
Mahanadia
a river in India. It rises in the northeastern part of the Deccan Plateau and empties into the Bay of Bengal, forming a 15,000-sq-km common delta with the Brahmani, Baitarani, and other rivers. Length, 880 km; basin area, approximately 130,000 sq km. During the summer monsoon the discharge in the lower course is more than 50,000 cu m per sec. The river carries a large quantity of suspended detritus. Floods are frequent. In the winter, during periods of drought, the Mahanadi is a shallow narrow river (discharge of about 30 cu m per sec). Located on the Mahanadi is the Hirakud Hydroelectric Power Plant (capacity of more than 350 megawatts) with a reservoir ensuring irrigation for more than 400,000 hectares of land covered mainly by rice fields. It is navigable for a distance of 150 km from the mouth. The city of Cuttack is on the Mahanadi.