- Friday, February 28, 2025
While several teams of the national and state disaster response forces were kept on standby, the Indian Army was also prepared to assist in relief efforts.
By: Shubham Ghosh
CYCLONE BIPARJOY, the storm which is currently located over the east-central Arabian Sea, is expected to make landfall in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of the western Indian state of Gujarat and adjoining coasts in Pakistan on Thursday (15). Mumbai, India’s financial capital, was also put on high alert.
On Tuesday (13), authorities in Gujarat moved at least 44,000 people from the coastal areas to temporary shelters ahead of the storm’s expected landfall near Jakhau port in Kutch district on Thursday evening.
The India Meteorological Department came up with a red alert for Saurashtra and Kutch. Several teams of the national and state disaster response forces were kept on standby. The Indian Army was also prepared to assist in relief efforts and stationed flood relief columns at key locations. The army was working in coordination with the civil administration and the disaster response force, NDTV reported.
On Tuesday, home minister Amit Shah reviewed the preparedness of Gujarat, his home state, for the cyclone in a virtual meeting with chief minister Bhupendra Patel and other senior officials. He told the state government to make arrangements to shift people living in vulnerable areas to safer locations and ensure that all essential services were available in those areas. Prime minister Narendra Modi also chaired a meeting over the preparedness for the storm and spoke with Patel and assured him all help.
“We have already started evacuating people residing near the coast who are likely to be affected the most during the landfall. So far, various district administrations have shifted nearly 30,000 people to temporary shelters,” Alok Kumar Pandey, state commissioner of relief, as quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Biparjoy, meaning ‘disaster’ in Bengali and named by Bangladesh, is expected to cross between Mandvi in Kutch and Karachi in Pakistan near Jakhau port on Thursday evening, with wind speeds of 125-135 kilometre per hour (kmph) gusting to 150 kmph, Ahmedabad IMD director Manorama Mohanty said.
The IMD also issued a warning for extremely heavy rainfall accompanied by strong winds in coastal areas of the Saurashtra-Kutch region.
The Indian Railways also took precautionary measures to ensure passengers’ safety. The Western Railways cancelled as many as 69 trains while 32 were terminated short of their destinations and 26 started short of their source.
(With agency inputs)
