Thousands of people have been shifted to safer places from vulnerable locations in coastal districts, several trains to and from coastal towns have been terminated and big hoardings have been removed as part of precautionary measures in view of cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ advancing towards the Saurashtra peninsula.

The Indian Coast Guard helicopters have evacuated about a dozen people working in offshore oil rigs near Gujarat coastline while the State Government has shifted more than 7,000 people from locations close to the coastline in as many as eight districts of Kutch, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Morbi, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Rajkot and Gir Somnath.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel chaired a meeting of senior officials on Monday night to review the situation and take necessary measures to minimize the damages to property and loss of human lives.

It was estimated at the meeting that nearly 16.76 lakh people living within five to ten kilometres from coastline in eight districts would face heavy rains, strong winds and rough seas in the wake of the cyclonic storm making its landfall in another 48 hours.

Thousands of cattle-heads and smaller domesticated animals have also been shifted from areas close to the coast and taken to various shelters.

As many as 21 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 13 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been dispatched to areas which are expected to be worst hit by the cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ scheduled to hit Kutch coast on Thursday.

The Western Railways has, meanwhile, cancelled 56 trains to and from coastal destinations like Veraval, Porbandar, Bhavnagar, Dwarka and others. Nearly 90 trains connecting these coastal towns will remain cancelled or short terminated during the next two or three days.

Around 1,500 big hoardings have been pulled down in eight coastal districts as these are potential threats to human lives when high speed winds blow them away.

As per the latest observation of the Meteorological Department, cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ was centred on Tuesday early morning about 290 kilometres south-west of Porbandar and 360 kilometres south-southwest of Jakhau in Kutch.

It is expected to cross Saurashtra and Kutch near Jakhau by Thursday evening as a very severe cyclonic storm, said the Meteorological Department report.