Cyclone intensifies

Ahmedabad: As cyclonic storm Biparjoy intensified on Sunday and continued to approach the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, the state government closed beaches and started reaching out to people living along the coast.

The Disaster Management Division, National Emergency Response Centre, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs also issued an advisory to the Gujarat government asking it to keep a close watch, monitor the situation in the areas regularly, and take appropriate precautionary measures.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a heavy rainfall warning for the Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagarh, and Morbi districts of Gujarat for June 14 and 15. In its bulletin issued at 9.45 am, IMD said Biparjoy is likely to make landfall between Mandvi in Kutch and Karachi in Pakistan on June 15.

“It is very likely to move nearly northward till 14th morning, then move northnortheastwards and cross Saurashtra & Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) around noon of 15th June as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph,” it added.

Due to the cyclone, IMD said sea conditions will remain very rough over the next three days, and the state is also likely to experience squally winds gusting up to 195 kilometre per hour on Sunday.

It said the wind speed will fall gradually from Monday onwards.

The surface wind speed picked up in the peninsular Saurashtra late on Saturday with Biparjoy changing its direction to north-eastward and approaching the Saurashtra coast. The Jamnagar city was hit by thundershowers accompanied by stormy winds, uprooting trees and hampering vehicular traffic late on Saturday.

The Gujarat government shut down popular sea beaches like Chowpaty in Porbandar, Shivrajpur near Dwarka in Devbhumi Dwarka, and Mandvi in the Kutch district. Government officials and staff were heard making announcements at the Rupen harbour near Dwarka town as well as in other fishing harbours along the long coastline of the state, telling them they might have to be shifted to safer areas if the cyclone continued to approach Saurashtra coast.

Meanwhile, IMD also issued a wind warning until June 15 saying gale wind speed reaching 155 to 165 km per hour and gusting to 180 km per hour prevailing over East Central and adjoining West Central and Northeast Arabian Sea.

Cyclone intensifies