Representational image. AFP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke by phone with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday on the state and readiness for Cyclone Biparjoy.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi presided over a high-level conference to assess the preparedness of the Centre’s and Gujarat’s ministries/agencies to cope with the situation.
According to the official statement, the Prime Minister directed senior officers to take every possible precaution to ensure that the State Government safely evacuates people living in vulnerable areas and that all essential services such as power, telecommunications, health, drinking water, and so on are maintained and restored as soon as possible if they are damaged.
Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to cross Saurashtra and Kutch between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by noon on June 15 as a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 145 kmph.
Later that day, the India Meteorological Department announced that Cyclone Biparjoy will make landfall near Gujarat’s Jakhau Port as a ‘Very Severe Cyclonic Storm’ on June 15.
“ESCS (extremely severe cyclonic storm) #Biparjoy weakened into VSCS (very severe cyclonic storm) and lay at 23.30 IST, about 310km SW of Porbandar, 320km SW of Devbhumi Dwarka, 380km SSW of Jakhau Port. To cross near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by the evening of 15th June as VSCS,” IMD said in a tweet.
Union Home Ministry also released an advisory and advised total suspension of fishing operations over the east-central and adjoining west-central Arabian Sea and northeast Arabian Sea till June 15 in the wake of extremely severe cyclonic storm ‘Biparjoy’.
In an advisory on Monday, the ministry asked Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra governments to keep a close watch on the situation in the wake of the severe cyclonic storm and take appropriate precautionary measures. It called for judicious regulation of offshore and onshore activities.
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