Odisha, Andhra, Bengal brace for
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed the preparations being undertaken to tackle the impending cyclone and directed all agencies involved to ensure no life is lost and property damage is minimal.
A low-pressure area had developed over the Andaman Sea on November 30. It intensified into a depression on December 2 and further into a deep depression on Friday morning. It turned into a cyclone on Friday noon, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said in the national capital.
A red colour warning has been issued for Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, and Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha for Saturday.
It would result in thunderstorms along with heavy rainfall in South Bengal districts. Squally winds at a speed of around 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph is also likely to commence along and off Bengal coast from Saturday evening and become gale wind at a speed of 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph from the Sunday morning for the next 12 hours.
Sixteen teams of NDRF have already been deployed at vulnerable areas of 12 South Bengal districts, including Kolkata.
Coast Guards are busy doing aerial surveys.
State Power minister Aroop Biswas and CMD of WBSEDCL Santanu Basu held a high-level meeting to ensure proper preparations to combat the impact of the cyclonic storm. A round-the-clock control room will be operational at Vidyut Bhawan.
The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over Bengal on Saturday and Sunday, and heavy rainfall in isolated places over Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura on Sunday and Monday. Sea conditions will remain unsafe for shipping and fishermen in central and north Bay of Bengal from Friday to Sunday.
The IMD has been issuing regular bulletins with the latest forecast to all the states concerned.
Saudi Arabia has given the cyclone its name ‘Jawad'--the liberal or merciful. If India's east coast, often battered by cyclonic storms, escapes its wrath, it will not be a misnomer.