VIJAYAWADA: The accurate and continuous alerts issued by the Real-Time Governance Society (RTGS) on cyclone Fani have brought laurels to the State agency. The officials and employees of the RTGS have been working day and night monitoring the movement of cyclone for the last nine days and even after its landfall in Odisha coast on Thursday.
The accuracy in predicting the exact location of landfall of ‘Fani’ and time-to-time alerts issued on the movement of the cyclone and the required precautionary measures to be taken have come in handy for the officials in the cyclone-affected districts in handling the situation more effectively, RTGS officials said.
RTGS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Babu A, who monitors the cyclone from the RTGS Centre housed in the State Secretariat, during a brief interaction with TNIE, said they have monitored the situation closely since the formation of the depression in the Bay of Bengal and predicted the direction of the cylone, location of landfall and speed of winds correctly.
Explaining about its accurate predictions, he said apart from IMD, they are getting the information from various sources including Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which itself has MoUs with several weather agencies across the globe. “The predictions by RTGS stood accurate with regard Titli, Phethai cyclones and now Fani,’’ he said.
Explaining that this time they have issued mandal-wise predictions with regard to the impact of cyclone, he said that around 89,000 vehicle owners in the 14 coastal mandals of Srikakulam district have been contacted through IVRS, suggesting them not to ride vehicles in the identified routes from Thursday night until the cyclone making landfall. Boddapati Anil, Research Scientist (AWARE) with RTGS, who was busy monitoring the path of cyclone on Thursday night, expressed happiness over the applause coming from various quarters for the good work done by his team.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that the efforts put by his government for the past five years in developing RTGS came in handy now.
Odisha govt praises RTGS
The Odisha government thanked the AP Government and RTGS for the timely support to handle the cyclone Fani impact in Odisha. Based on the information by RTGS, the Odisha government put the machinery on high alert and intensified its preparedness well in advance. After the landfall, the Odisha government officials dialled Chief Secretary LV Subramanyam and expressed their gratitude to the state and the services of the RTGS. Odisha praised the efficiency and accuracy of RTGS.
How RTGS does it
Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) placed in cyclone affected mandals for uninterrupted communication.
Formed a Whatsapp group with Odisha CS, Collectors of Gajapathi, Ganjam districts in Odisha and Srikakulam district collector to disseminate the time-to-time info about the movement of the cyclone.