KOLKATA: Cyclone Dana barrelled towards Bengal-Odisha coast on Wednesday and is expected to make landfall between Bhitarkanika and Dhamara in north Odisha, around 350km from Kolkata, in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday as a severe cyclonic storm with wind speed going up to 120km/hr.
Kolkata started receiving showers from Wednesday morning and the rain is likely to intensify on Thursday. The showers will get heavier (70mm-110mm) after the cyclone makes landfall, the Met office said. Wind speed could touch 60-70km/hour gusting to 80km/hour in the city.
On Wednesday, parts of East and West Midnapore and North and South 24 Parganas received heavy (70mm-110 mm) showers and are predicted to receive even heavier rain (70 mm- 200 mm) on Thursday. The showers are likely to start fizzling out on Saturday, said Somenath Dutta, deputy director-general of meteorology, RMC.
With strong winds and heavy rain expected to lash the city, flight operations at Kolkata airport will remain suspended from 6 pm Thursday to 9 am Friday. This will lead to the cancellation of 208 flights, affecting around 30,000 fliers. Local train services from Sealdah will also remain suspended from 8 pm on Thursday to 10 am on Friday.
A unified command centre was set up at Lalbazar on Wednesday and KMC cancelled leaves of employees in all essential departments. All KMC drainage pumping stations will keep heavy-duty pumps functional to flush out rainwater from waterlogged areas. Power utility CESC will deploy 6,000 personnel to meet all challenges.
Additionally, portable pumps are being readied for some neighbourhoods like Garden Reach, Metiabruz, Behala, Garia, and areas located off EM Bypass. The KMC will set up makeshift camps for the evacuation of residents in low-lying areas that may go underwater in the event of heavy rains. The KMC buildings department on Wednesday started miking in areas with a large number of dilapidated buildings, asking the residents to shift to safer places as protection against the cyclone. "We have decided to shift residents of highly insecure buildings to safer places like the KMC-run primary schools that will be converted into makeshift camps for them," said a KMC buildings department official.
The Kolkata Police have set up dedicated teams across the city, with its Disaster Management Teams broken into multiple units. The focus will remain on the added areas that were worst hit by Amphan. KP is monitoring the ghats, and its River Traffic Police is asking people to avoid going too deep into the Hooghly River at the various ghats during the inclement weather. KP and KMC have together begun warning residents of low-lying areas around the Hooghly and Adi Ganga and are even seeking evacuations in some parts of Nadial.
Chief secretary Manoj Pant on Wednesday convened a meeting with district magistrates to evaluate cyclone preparedness and took stock of measures taken to shift people from low-lying regions, maitain sufficient food supplies and avert electrocution. He also instructed officials to make arrangements to clear roads obstructed by uprooted trees in the aftermath of the cyclone
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