Gujarat is bracing for the extremely severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy, which is expected to make a landfall near the Jakhau fishing harbour in Kutch on Thursday, as the authorities have launched a massive effort to shift people to safer locations to mitigate the likely damages.
A series of meetings have been held in New Delhi and in Gandhinagar to take stock of the preparations and chalk out the details about the precautionary measures and deployment of machinery and resources to deal with the likely fallout of the storm.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting while separate meetings were held in Delhi as well as in Gandhinagar.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has said that Mr. Modi spoke to him and assured “all possible help” from the Centre to deal with the cyclone.
NDRF deployed
The State and Central authorities have deployed 21 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 13 teams of the SDRF in coastal districts where fishing activities have been halted, while over 7,000 people from vulnerable areas have been shifted to temporary shelters.
Also read | Cyclone Biparjoy updates
Along with the NDRF, the Centre said adequate number of teams and assets of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Coast Guard were being deployed to assist Gujarat in its preparedness, rescue and restoration efforts. In addition, 15 teams — five each at Arakonam (Tamil Nadu), Mundli (Odisha) and Bathinda (Punjab) — are on alert for airlifting on short notice.
The State said a total of 441 villages in eight coastal districts were likely to be affected by the cyclone. These villages are along the sea coast in 10 km range.
The State and the Centre have rushed senior Ministers to oversee the preparations to deal with the fallout of the cyclonic storm which will hit the coastal districts and likely to cause extensive damage as per the prediction by the weather forecast.
The Railways has cancelled nearly 95 trains from Tuesday to Thursday.
The port authorities have hoisted warning signals across the coastal belt in Saurashtra and Kutch.
IMD warning
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with isolated extremely heavy rainfall in the districts of Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar on June 15.
Moreover, a few places in other districts of the Saurashtra region close to the coast will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall, while isolated places in north Gujarat districts will also receive heavy rainfall.
The IMD has also said storm surge of about 2-3 metres above the astronomical tide is likely to inundate low lying areas in the above districts during the time of landfall, and wind speed may reach up to 190 kmph in the sea.
The IMD has warned of wind speed of up to 120-130 kmph gusting to 145 kmph from the morning of June 15 when the cyclone makes landfall in the Saurashtra Kutch coastal region.
It said the extremely severe cyclonic storm is likely to cause disruption of railways, overhead power lines and signalling system in the State on June 15.
Red alert
According to IMD Director-General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the met department has issued an Orange alert for June 14 and a Red alert for June 15 for all districts. “We appeal to people to stay at safe locations,” he said.
He added, “Cyclone Biparjoy is slowly moving in the north direction with a speed of 5 kmph and will change direction after June 14. A very severe cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 125-135 km/h is likely to hit Saurashtra, Kutch, and the Pakistan coast by the afternoon of June 15. There will be heavy rains in Saurashtra, Kutch on June 14-15.”
