Kolkata, Oct 24 2024-
With cyclone ‘Dana’ expected to make its landfall at a place between Bhitarkanika of Kendrapara district and the Dhamara area of Bhadrak district, both in Odisha, between Thursday night and early Friday morning, red alerts have been issued in the three districts of West Bengal, likely to be most affected by the impact of the landfall.
The three districts where red alerts have been issued include East Midnapore, South 24 Parganas and West Midnapore, the first two being coastal districts.
As per the predictions of the Regional Meteorological Office in Kolkata, the maximum impact is suspected in East Midnapore district, which is West Bengal’s bordering district with Odisha.
The impact is also likely to be felt in the coastal pockets of North 24 Parganas district, as per the predictions of the Regional Meteorological Office. At the time of the landfall, the wind speed at the coastal pockets in the state was likely to be over 100 km an hour.
As per the latest information on Cyclone Dana, it is currently at a distance of 210 km from Sagar Islands in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, 100 km from Paradeep in Jagatsinghpur of Odisha and 130 km from Dhamara in Bhadrak district, also in Odisha.
Meanwhile, flight services from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata and the train services in the north and south sections of the Sealdah division of Eastern Railways have already been suspended. The suspension will be in effect till Friday morning.
Several trains on the Howrah division of Eastern Railways have also been cancelled. However, the operations of the Metro Railways will continue as usual.
As a precaution, ferry services in the coastal Sundarbans have also been suspended for two days from Thursday as a measure of precaution, considering that this region was the worst affected both because of Cyclone Aila in 2009 and Cyclone Amphan in 2020.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and the state Home Secretary Nandini Chakraborty have decided to stay back at the state secretariat Nabanna on Thursday night, monitoring the situation from the state-level control room.
The Chief Minister said that a total of 83,547 people have already been shifted to the temporary relief camps.
She has also claimed that just as there is no reason to panic unnecessarily, there is also no reason to be over-complacent that Cyclone Dana’s landfall will happen in neighbouring Odisha and not in West Bengal. (Agency)
