Kolkata: Heavy rains have already started lashing several south Bengal districts from today, particularly along the coast of Bay of Bengal, as the state braces for severe cyclonic storm Dana’s landfall in neighbouring Odisha.
All air services have been suspended from Kolkata NSCB International Airport from 6 pm of Thursday to 9 am of Friday due to prediction of severe gusts predicted by the regional Met office in the wake of cyclone Dana. Eastern Railway authorities have decided to suspend suburban train services from Sealdah terminal from 8 pm on Thursday and 10 am on Friday. South Eastern Railway authorities have cancelled 140 long-distance mail and express trains and 40 suburban local trains due to the gusts and inclement weather.
Heavy showers have started in several areas of Purba Medinipur, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts, with Kolkata also receiving smart spells of downpour. Meteorologists of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata have told ETV Bharat that the spells of rains will only intensify as the severe cyclonic storm Dana nears the coastline.
“The deep depression on the Bay of Bengal, which will turn into a severe cyclonic weather system, is around 540kms from Sagar Islands and is moving in a northwesterly direction at a speed of about 12 km per hour. The system is around 490km from Dhamara and 460km from Paradeep in Odisha. When the storm makes landfall, the eye will spread across a radius of around 150 kms and will encompass many parts of Purba Medinipur district. We expect the system to make landfall in the wee hours of Friday and gusts of around 120 kmph with storm surge in the sea of around 2 metres could happen. Several parts of Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas will also be affected due to weather system Dana with around 1 metre storm surge. Gusts of around 80 kmph are expected in Kolkata from the evening of Thursday to Friday morning,” said Habibur Rehman Biswas, director at the Regional Met department office in Kolkata.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is keeping a close watch on the evolving situation in the coastal districts and is being apprised about the latest developments from the round-the-clock control room functional at state secretariat Nabanna. The Public Address system is being extensively used in the coastal districts alerting people to move away from the shoreline to higher grounds.
State disaster management department officials said, nine teams of NDRF and 13 teams of SDRF have been deployed in seven districts. Out of these, three companies of NDRF and four companies of SDRF have been deployed in South 24 Parganas. Two companies of NDRF and one company of SDRF in North 24 Parganas. Three companies of NDRF and two companies of SDRF in Purba Medinipur.
One company NDRF and two companies SDRF in Paschim Medinipur. A company SDRF in Jhargram. Two companies SDRF in Howrah. A company of SDRF has been deployed in Hooghly. The special control room at Nabanna can be contacted by 1070 and 033-22143526. The state public works department, sanitation and technical department and Kolkata Municipal Corporation have all opened separate control rooms to keep a watch on the evolving situation as the weather system approaches land.
