33 NDRF teams earmarked for relief & rescue ops in Gujarat, Maharashtra

A total of 33 teams have been earmarked by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to undertake relief and rescue operations in Gujarat and Maharashtra ahead of the expected landfall of cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ near the Jakhau port in Kutch district, officials said on Wednesday.

While 18 NDRF teams have been placed in Gujarat, one has been stationed in neighbouring Diu in the newly formed Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Diu is encircled by Gir Somnath and Amreli districts of Gujarat in the north and by the Arabian Sea from three sides.

Giving a layout of the NDRF deployment in Gujarat, the officials said four NDRF teams have been deployed in the Kutch district, three each in Rajkot and Devbhumi Dwarka, two in Jamnagar, one each in Porbandar Junagarh, Gir Somnath, Morbi, Valsad and Gandhinagar.

Authorities have so far shifted 50,000 people from coastal areas of Gujarat to temporary shelters ahead of the expected landfall.

With the cyclone barrelling towards the Gujarat coast, parts of the Saurashtra-Kutch region received heavy rains accompanied by strong winds. Nine talukas in Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Porbandar and Rajkot districts received more than 50 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending on Wednesday morning.

The India Meteorological Department said Biparjoy was set to change the path on Wednesday and begin moving north-eastwards towards Kutch and Saurashtra and have a landfall on Thursday evening near Jakhau Port.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday spoke to the three service chiefs and reviewed the preparations of the armed forces to deal with the impact of the cyclone.

After reviewing the preparations, Singh said the armed forces are ready to provide every possible assistance to civil authorities in tackling any situation or contingency that may arise due to the cyclone.

The Gujarat government has undertaken the exercise to evacuate people living in villages within a 10 km radius of the coast, with a special focus on Kutch which is likely to be worst affected by the cyclone. The evacuation is in progress and is expected to be completed by Wednesday evening, officials said.

“The cyclone is nearly 290 km away from Kutch at present. As a precautionary measure, we have already shifted nearly 50,000 people living in coastal areas to temporary shelters. The evacuation process is still on and the remaining 5,000 persons will be shifted by this evening to safer places” said State Commissioner of Relief, Alok Kumar Pandey. Of the 50,000-odd evacuees, nearly 18,000 people were shifted to shelters in Kutch district while others were evacuated from Junagadh, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Morbi and Rajkot, Pandey told reporters in Gandhinagar. In neighbouring Maharashtra, out of the total 14 NDRF teams, five have been deployed in Mumbai while the rest have been kept on standby, the officials said.

Each of these teams have about 35-40 personnel and they are equipped with tree and pole cutters, electric saws, inflatable boats and basic medicines and relief items, they said.

NDRF Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Mohsen Shahedi told reporters here that a “massive” evacuation drive has been undertaken by the state authorities and the NDRF in the coastal areas of Gujarat over the last two days and more than 45,000 people have been moved to safer places. He said the “thrust area” for the federal anti-disaster force is the Saurashtra and Kutch area of Gujarat where eight districts and 442 low-lying villages are expected to be affected by strong rains and floods that could be triggered by the cyclone.

The cyclone is barrelling towards the Gujarat coast even as parts of the Saurashtra-Kutch region received heavy rains accompanied by strong winds on Wednesday, the MeT department said.

‘Biparjoy’ is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening as a “very severe cyclonic storm” with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

‘Biparjoy’, pronounced ‘Biporjoy’, is a name given by Bangladesh and in Bangla it means ‘disaster’. The naming of cyclones by various countries is undertaken as per the protocol issued by the World Meteorological Organisation.

With agency inputs