Cyclone Biparjoy landfall starts in Gujarat's Saurashtra and Kutch regions, says IMD

PTI

Ahmedabad, June 15

Cyclone Biparjoy's landfall has started in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat, IMD said in its latest alert. 

Biparjoy's first elements have made a contact with land. 'Eye of the cyclone' is still a hundred km  out and expected to hit by 9 pm.

Earlier, the state administration said it has so far shifted more than 94,000 persons living in eight coastal districts to temporary shelters.

Of the 94,427 persons evacuated so far, nearly 46,800 were evacuated in Kutch district, followed by 10,749 in Devbhumi Dwarka, 9,942 in Jamnagar, 9,243 in Morbi, 6,822 in Rajkot, 4,864 in Junagadh, 4,379 in Porbandar and 1,605 in Gir Somnath district, a Gujarat government release said.

 “Those who were shifted to safer places include nearly 8,900 children, 1,131 pregnant women and 4,697 elderly persons. A total of 1,521 shelter homes have been set up in these eight districts. Medical teams are visiting the shelters at regular intervals,” the release informed.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reached the State Emergency Operations Centre in Gandhinagar in the morning and held a meeting with top officials to review the situation as well as steps taken to provide relief to people, it said.

Citing the latest observations of the India Meteorological Department, state Commissioner of Relief Alok Kumar Pandey informed the CM that the speed at which the cyclone is moving towards Gujarat has come down.

“To ensure continuous water supply in case of power outage, the state Water Supply department has put 25 generator sets on stand-by in Kutch, Dwarka and Jamnagar as well as five sets in Morbi,” the release said.

As per the government, 15 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 12 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), 115 teams of state road and building department and 397 teams of the state electricity department have been deployed in different coastal districts.

The IMD has said cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ would make landfall near Jakhau port on Thursday as a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’.

Meanwhile, the Dwarkadhish temple in Devbhumi Dwarka and Somnath temple in Gir Somnath district would remain closed on Thursday for devotees and visitors, said an official release.

A storm surge of about 2-3 metres above the astronomical tide is likely to inundate low-lying areas of the districts that are likely to be affected due to the landfall. The tides could rise up to 3-6 metres in some places, the IMD has said.

This will be the second cyclone to hit the state in two years after ‘Tauktae' in May 2021.

The Western Railway has said that 76 trains have been cancelled, 36 short-terminated and 31 short-originated as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of passengers and train operations.

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