CHENNAI: The Indian Meteorological Department on Thursday said the cyclonic storm Mandous over Southwest Bay of Bengal has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centered about 350 km east-southeast of Karaikal and about 440 km southeast of Chennai.
It is very likely to maintain its intensity of being a severe cyclonic storm till Friday morning and then weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by the same day forenoon.
"It would continue to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamilnadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Sriharikota, around Mahabalipuram as a cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph around midnight of Friday," the IMD said in its bulletin.
Under its influence, several north coastal and interior districts of the State are likely to receive extreme to very heavy rains on December 9-10. The IMD has issued a red alert for three districts of Tamil Nadu -- Kancheepuram, Chengalpet and Villupuram -- and Puducherry, while an orange alert was issued for Chennai, Tiruvallur, Ranipet, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur, Kallakurichi and Cuddalore for Friday.
The state authorities said adequate precautionary measures were put in place to face any eventuality. The district administrations of 17 districts, including Chennai, Chengalpet, Villupuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Cuddalore, Ranipet, Kancheepuram, Kallakurichi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Pudukkottai, Salem, Dharmapuri and Namakkal, have declared holiday for schools and colleges for Friday. In Karaikal and Puducherry, schools and colleges will remain closed even on Saturday.
Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu held discussions with the heads of key departments of the State government regarding precautionary steps. A total of 12 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force comprising 396 personnel have rushed to 10 districts to face any eventuality.
Exams postponed
The school education department has postponed the Tamil Nadu Rural Students Talent Search Examination (TRUST) to December 17. It was scheduled to take place on December 10. Class 9 students in rural parts of the state in all the schools whose parents have income less than Rs 1 lakh are eligible to write the TRUST examination. Students who clear the examination will be given a scholarship of Rs 1,000 per year for four years.
Meanwhile, Anna University has also postponed its final semester examination scheduled on Friday. The statement issued by the university said considering the safety of the students, the university's end semester examinations scheduled on Friday were postponed. "The new date will be intimated to all later, " said the statement.
The Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE) has postponed the semester exam scheduled for Diploma students. "The exam scheduled on December 9 will now be held on December 16 and the rest of the time table remains the same, " said a statement issued by DoTe.
Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has also postponed theory and practical examinations scheduled on Friday. The revised dates will be announced later, according to the press release
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