Gujarat: As Cyclone Tauktae has intensified as an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’ in the Arabian sea and heading towards Gujarat coasts, the Gujarat government has evacuated 1.5 lakh people from the coastal areas of the state.
The cyclone is likely to reach the coasts of Gujarat on 17 May evening and cross between Porbandar and Mahuva (Bhavnagar district) between 8 pm to11.30 pm. The cyclonic storm will sustain a maximum wind speed 155-165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph.
A massive evacuation operation has been carried out in 655 villages of 17 districts to be affected by the cyclone. People from Porbandar, Amreli, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Botad, Bhavnagar, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Kutch, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Mori, Valsad, Surat, Vadodara, Bharuch, Navsari, Anand and Ahmedabad have been evacuated to a safer place.
41 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 10 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams have been deployed in the districts to be most affected. This apart 240 teams of forest department and 242 teams of road and buildings (R&B) department have been deployed for immediate clearance of roads blocked due to felling of trees.