Kolkata: A depression in the Bay of Bengal is expected to develop into a severe cyclonic storm and make landfall somewhere between Bengal’s Sagar Island and Bangladesh’s Khepupara around Sunday midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.
A high level meeting was conducted at Nabanna to take stock of preparedness of administration. The Cabinet secretary of the Union government also held a virtual meeting with the Bengal and Odisha governments. The National Disaster Management has also sent guidelines as to what precautionary measures ought to have taken. A special control room has been opened in Nabanna managed by IAS officers. District Magistrates have also opened a control room in their respective districts. Power department, PWD, Public Health Engineering, Transport, Agriculture departments have been alerted.
The latest cyclone, in its full formation, will be called ‘Remal’. The word means ‘sand’ in Arabic. The name was suggested by Oman. The Meteorological department expects a wind speed of up to 100 to 120 km per hour at the time of the landfall. The weather system will bring heavy to very heavy rain in the coastal districts of Bengal on May 26 and 27, IMD said. The MeT office has warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall on May 26 and 27 in Kolkata, South and North 24-Parganas, East Midnapore and Howrah districts. Gusty wind reaching 90 to 100 kmph is expected in South 24-Parganas, 80 to 90 kmph in Purba Medinipur on these days, while in Kolkata, North 24-Parganas and Howrah it will reach 60 to 70 kmph. Under the influence of the cyclone, light to moderate rain and thundershowers are also likely to lash north and south Odisha from May 25.