Gujarat on hight alert as cyclone Vayu nears

A CYCLONIC storm barrelling towards western India has strengthened with gusts of up to 170kph expected when it hits land early on Thursday, forecasters said.

Authorities in Gujarat state where Vay u, now classed as a ver y severe c yclon ic stor m, were mea nwhi le t r y i ng to e v ac uate close to 30 0,0 0 0 p e ople l i v i ng i n c o a s t a l areas.

“Many people living near the coast are not willing to shift and leave their homes. Our officers are trying to convince them,” local official Ajay Prakash said.

“Hopefully, we will be able to shi f t t hem i n t i me,” sa id the official from the Gir-Somnath district where Vay u was due to ma ke l a nd f a l l at 5 : 3 0 a m ( 0 0 0 0 GM T ) on Thursday.

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani told reporters that 130,000 people had been shifted to safer locations as of Wednesday afternoon.

Jayata Sarkar from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said winds of between 145 and 155kph were expected with gusts of up to 170kph, equivalent to a category one or two hurricane.

The IMD also forecast waves of 3.5-5.3m over the next two days, with fishermen told not to venture out to sea.

The Air Force, Coastguard and Navy have all been put on high alert, with 36 teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) deployed in coastal areas.

In the system’s path is the coastal town of Verval, a major hub of India’s fisheries industry exporting to Japan, South East Asia, Europe, the Gulf and the US.

The Gujarat coast is also home to two major ports, Deendayal and Adani in the Gulf of Kutch, as well as the Jamnagar oil refiner y, the world’s largest.

Cyclones are relatively rare in Gujarat. The worst was in 1998 when more than 4,000 people perished, according to official numbers.

Vayu is the second cyclone to hit India this year.

In May Cyclone Fani packing winds up to 200kph killed around 80 people in eastern India and Bangladesh.

But authorities won praise for evacuating more than a million people and averting what could have been a major disaster.

The latest weat her system was a lso ex pected to draw moisture away f rom muchne e de d a n nua l monsoon r a i n s , w i t h a l most h a l f of I nd i a h it b y d r ou g ht a nd many a reas suf fer ing a heat wave.