Cyclone Fani which has turned into an ‘extremely severe’ cyclonic storm is about 450 km from the Odisha coast, the India Meteorological Department informed early on Thursday.
The cyclonic storm is moving northwards with a speed of 5 kms per hour in last six hours and is likely to cross Odisha coast south of Puri between Gopalpur and Chandbali anytime by Friday afternoon with wind speed of up to 200 km per hour.
The storm is located around 225 kms south-southeast of Visakhapatnam, the Met department further informed.
A “yellow warning” has been issued for Odisha predicting heavy to very heavy rain in several areas.
In view of the oncoming cyclonic storm, the East Coast Railway has cancelled 22 more trains taking the total to 103.
The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has also decided to run a special train from Puri to Shalimar on Thursday for stranded tourists in view of the landfall of cyclonic storm Fani on the Odisha coast.
The train is scheduled to leave Puri at 12 noon on Thursday. It will make stoppages at Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jajpur, Keonjhar Road, Bhadrak, Balasore and Kharagpur, said an ECoR official.
Trains from Puri to Howrah, in the night of May 2, and trains from Bangalore, Chennai and Secundrabad to Howrah in the evening of May 2 have been cancelled.
Similarly, all train services between Puri and Bhubaneswar and incoming trains touching Puri and Bhubaneswar on May 3 have been terminated.
According to the weather department, 19 districts of Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are likely to be hit by the cyclone.
Odisha government has declared holiday at schools and colleges in the state from May 2 till further orders.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed the evacuation of about eight lakh people in view of “extremely severe” cyclonic storm Fani.
India Navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard have been put on high alert to meet any eventuality due to the cyclone.
Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and fire service have been deployed in vulnerable areas in the districts likely to be affected by the cyclone.
All 28 teams of NDRF, 20 ODRAF units and other fire service units have been dispatched to areas on a priority basis.
The state government has assigned 12 IAS and 11 IPS officers to supervise the relief, rehabilitation and restoration work in the affected districts.
The Odisha government has cancelled leaves and holidays of all the officials in the Energy Department as part of preparedness in view of the possible damage to power supply and distribution during the cyclone.
All kinds of leaves of doctors and health staff have been cancelled up to May 15. The Health Department had asked all those on leave to report back to respective headquarters by Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry has informed that it is monitoring the developing situation in the East coast of India for Cyclone Fani and has authorised proactive deployment of resources from the Indian Navy and Coast Guard for succour and assistance to those in need with minimum reaction time.