Chennai, December 1
All the ports in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have been advised by the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, to hoist Port Warning Signal No 3 ― port threatened by local bad weather like squally winds.
However, an official at the Chennai Port Trust said that Signal Number 1 ― Depression far at sea; port not affected ― continues to be hoisted at the port. There is no official communication yet on moving to Signal Number 3, he added.
Signal Number 3 at the ports has been advised due to a depression over south-east and adjoining south-west Bay of Bengal that intensified into a deep depression. It lays centred at 0530 hrs on Tuesday morning over south-west and adjoining south-east Bay of Bengal about 530 km east-south-east of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) and 930 km east-south-east of Kanyakumari (India), according to an RMC, Chennai, bulletin.
The deep depression is likely to intensify further into a cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours. It is very likely to move west-north-westwards and cross the Sri Lanka coast close to Trincomalee during the evening/night of December 2. It is likely to move nearly westwards, and thereafter emerge into the Comorin area on the morning of December 3 and move westward towards south Tamil Nadu coast, the bulletin said.
Accordingly, all the ports in Tamil Nadu ― Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Kamarajar (Ennore), Kattupalli, VOC (Thoothukudi), Rameshwaram, Colachel and Pamban ― and Puducherry and Karaikal ports in Puducherry, have been advised to hoist Signal no 3.