Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Monday advocated people from vulnerable areas should be evacuated before the landfall of the severe cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ in Arabian Sea which is expected to move towards Saurashtra and Kutch area of Gujarat from Thursday.
Chairing National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) meeting, Rajiv Gauba said, “The aim should be to keep loss of lives to zero and minimise damage to property and infrastructure such as power and telecom, and in case of damage to this infrastructure, it must be restored in the shortest possible time”.
The Director General, India Meteorological Department (IMD), apprised the Committee that extremely severe cyclonic storm ‘Biparjoy’ is very likely to move nearly northward till June 14 morning, the government said. It will then move north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra and Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by noon of the next day as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150-kmph, the DG pointed out.
In the review meeting, the Cabinet Secretary stressed on the preventive and precautionary measures that should be taken by concerned authorities of government of Gujarat and central Agencies like NDMA, the government stated.
The Gujarat Chief Secretary apprised the Committee that fishermen have been advised not to venture out into the sea and those at sea have been called back to safe berth. A total of 21,000 boats have been parked so far and a list of all vulnerable villages have been prepared for evacuation purpose, the government stated. Details of Saltpan workers have also been prepared for shifting them to safe places. Adequate shelters, power supply, medicine and emergency services are being kept in readiness.
Adequate number of teams and assets of Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard are being deployed to assist the State of Gujarat in their preparedness, rescue and restoration efforts. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has already deployed 12 teams and 3 additional teams are kept in readiness in Gujarat. In addition, 15 teams, 5 each at Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu), Mundli (Odisha) and Bathinda (Punjab) are kept on alert for airlifting on short notice.