BHUBANESWAR: With the India Meteorological Department predicting about a possible cyclonic storm moving towards the Odisha coast, the state government on Tuesday asked the collectors of 16 districts to be on high alert.
The collectors have been asked to direct all employees and officials to remain at the district headquarters during the period.
The office of the Special Relief Commissioner directed the collectors of Balasore, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Ganjam, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Cuttack, Khurda, Nayagarh, Gajapati, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Malkangiri and Koraput districts to initiate measures to tackle the situation in view of the possibility of a cyclonic storm hitting the Odisha coast.
The government also asked the district authorities to open round-the-clock control room to coordinate with different departments on the developments of the condition.
Besides, the collectors have also been directed to keep the Odisha Disaster Rapid
Action Force and fire and rescue teams in readiness to tackle any eventuality.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who returned from New Delhi after a six-day visit, said the state government is fully prepared to deal with the situation.
An India Meteorological Department bulletin maintained that Monday’s low pressure area over Tenasserim coast and adjoining Andaman Sea has concentrated into a depression and lay centred about 1,380 km southeast of Gopalpur.
It would move in a west-northwesterly direction and intensify into a deep depression within the next 24 hours and subsequently intensify into a cyclonic storm, the bulletin said.
The system would cross Andaman and Nicobar Islands close to Long Island by Wednesday forenoon, the bulletin said and added that thereafter the system would continue to move in west-northwesterly direction for some more time and then towards north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast during the subsequent 72 hours.