Total loss caused by cyclone Fani may be over Rs 13,000 crore: Odisha govt

BHUBANESWAR: The final memorandum of the damages caused by extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani is expected to be ready by Thursday.
Though the state government had set a target of submitting it before the Centre by May-end, official sources said extensive damage to public properties has delayed the process of estimation.
"The administrations of the affected districts have nearly completed the assessment of loss. It would take another two to three days to compile the reports and prepare the memorandum. We will soon send the memorandum to the Centre," special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said.
Even as the state government had earlier estimated the loss to public properties being worth Rs 11,942 crore according to a preliminary report, the total loss according to the final memorandum would be nearly 13,000 crore, said an official source.
Major damages to public properties include damage of more than 5 lakh houses (worth Rs 5,000 crore) and power infrastructure worth Rs 1200 crore. With the process of assessing the damage caused by Fani moving at a snail's space, the state government had recently appointed three senior IAS officers for an equal number of worst-affected districts -Suresh Mahapatra for Puri, Sanjiv Chopra for Cuttack and Krishan Kumar for Khurda - to expedite the process.