Cyclone Fani: Odisha braces for landfall today

New Delhi: Over 4,000 specialised personnel as part of 81 NDRF teams have been deployed to deal with the “extremely severe” cyclone Fani which is likely to affect Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal upon its landfall on Friday.

At least 19 districts of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are likely to be affected by Fani (pronounced ‘Foni’), expected to make landfall south of Puri.

The storm is about 420 km from the Odisha coast, the India Meteorological Department said in a release, and is likely to make landfall between 10 am to 12 pm Friday. State governments have started the evacuation process and nearly 800,000 people have been moved already to safer areas.

An estimated 10,000 villages and 52 towns in Odisha will be hit by Fani.

Twenty-eight fully equipped teams have been deployed in and around Puri, 12 teams have been deployed in Andhra Pradesh and six in West Bengal. The rest of the teams, that comprise about 50 personnel each, have been kept on standby in these states.

Flight operations from Bhubaneswar remain suspended from Thursday midnight and from Kolkata from Friday morning.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a meeting to review the preparedness to counter cyclone Fani.

He was briefed on the likely path of the cyclone, and the ongoing precautionary and preparatory measures being undertaken, official sources said.

Around 95 trains have been cancelled in the last two days in view of the cyclonic storm, while three special trains have been pressed into service to ferry stranded passengers from affected areas.

The New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express, New Delhi-Puri Nandan Kanan Express, Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express and the New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express which had to begin their journeys Thursday have been cancelled as well.