Twelve gates of the Manjara dam were closed early Wednesday morning, a day after heavy water discharge from the reservoir following heavy rains led to flooding in some villages of Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts in Marathwada region of Maharashtra, officials said.

With the closure of 12 out of the total 18 gates of the dam at 4 am, the water discharge came down to 18,747 cusec (cubic metre per second) as against the outflow of 70,845 cusec on Tuesday, that caused inundation in several downstream villages, a release from the irrigation department said.