Cyclone Dana: High alert issued across West Bengal

Kolkata, Oct 23 (IANS) The administration in West Bengal is on high alert while all necessary precautionary measures have been taken to minimise the impact of Cyclone Dana which is expected to make a landfall between Bhitarkanika of Kendrapara district and the Dhamara area of Bhadrak district.

Flight services have been cancelled at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata for 15 hours from Thursday.

Similarly, train services, including those of local trains, have been suspended in both north and south sections of the Sealdah division of Eastern Railways for 14 hours from Thursday.

At the same time, the trains coming from the stations in the coastal areas like Namkhana in South 24 Parganas district and Hasnabad in North 24 Parganas district will not be approaching Sealdah from Thursday.

A senior official of the Eastern Railways has confirmed that the decision has been taken keeping in mind the safety of the passengers who commute daily by local trains.

Services of 190 local trains at Sealdah division will remain suspended during that period.

Control rooms have been opened both at the state level at the state secretariat Nabanna located at Mandirtala in the Kolkata-adjacent Howrah district as well as at the district levels at the different district headquarters in the state.

A separate control room has also been opened at the headquarters of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in central Kolkata.

An official said that the Chief Secretary is getting hourly updates from the district magistrates, especially from the nine most vulnerable districts identified on this count.

“The Chief Secretary on his part is updating the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the developments on a regular basis,” he said.

Red alerts have been issued in the three coastal districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore and also in parts of the West Midnapore district.

Following the direction of the state the tourists have evacuated from popular tourist hubs in coastal areas like Digha and Mandarmani in East Midnapore district.

Schools and colleges in nine districts had already been shut from Wednesday and will continue to be so till Friday. The administration has also shifted people residing in low-lying areas to safer places.

However, the Regional Meteorological Office has predicted that the impact on West Bengal is unlikely to be anywhere near the devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan in 2020, which was the strongest after the 1999 Odisha Cyclone.

Cyclone Dana’s latest position was 540 kilometres from Sagar Islands in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal and around 490 kilometres from Dhamara in Odisha, the probable place of landfall.