The coastal Maharashtra went into a high alert mode as it prepared itself to the cascading effect of stormy weather to be triggered by the cyclone ‘Ockhi’ which is expected to make a landfall in south Gujarat in the small hours of Tuesday.
Mumbaikars and their counterparts in the neighbouring districts of coastal Konkan region had the foretaste of the brewing inclement weather conditions.
The metropolis experienced sudden rainfall which slowed down road traffic but the suburban train network remained affected.
For the next 48 hours, the Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai, has forecast rain or thundershowers in the city and suburbs and squally wind speed reaching 50 to 60 kmph and 70 kmph and gusting up to 70 kmph along the coastal area in the state. It has predicted the minimum temperature will dip to 22 degree C.
Danger signals LC-III were hoisted over all ports between Goa to Dahanu, with rough to very rough conditions in the sea.
Not wanting to take any chances, Maharashtra Education Minister announced a ‘precautionary holiday’ on Tuesday for all schools in the coastal districts of Palghar, Thane, Mumbai, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, in view of the predictions for the cyclone. He said that the holiday was being declared for schools to ensure safety of students studying in schools of coastal Konkan region.
The State Disaster Management Unit, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Railways geared themselves for the impending cascading effect of cyclone ‘Ockhi’ which lay “centred about 850 km south-southwest of Surat and is likely to cross south Gujarat and adjoining north Maharashtra coasts near Surat as a deep depression by mid-night of December 5.”
At an emergency meeting of all its departments, the Western Railway decided to keep itself prepared for inundation of the railway tracks “The Railway Protection Force and Commercial staff will monitor crowd movements, especially in the alert areas of Palghar,” a WR spokesperson said.
“We have kept our disaster management cell is in readiness for any emergencies. We have intensified patrolling of tracks over various rail sections. The RPF and commercial staff are prepared for necessary evacuation at affected stations in case of any disaster-like situation,” the affected sections.
According to WR, its technical teams will monitor railway assets and essentials like electricity supply with back-up diesel generators, signal and telecom, breakdown equipments, accident relief trains or accident relief medical vans, etc are on standby for any eventuality.
On its part, the BMC has warned people from venturing close to the coastal areas and beaches as high waves are expected in the Arabian Sea owing to the cyclone conditions.