Cyclone Fani: 103 trains cancelled including Silchar-Thiruvananthapuram Central Express

May 2: Nineteen districts of Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are likely to be hit by cyclone Fani. East Coast Railway cancelled 22 trains on Wednesday, taking the total to 103 trains. The NF Railway cancelled the 12508 Silchar-Thiruvananthapuram Central Express, the 12514 Guwahati-Secunderabad Express and the 15929 Tambaram-Dibrugarh Express. These three trains were scheduled to depart on May 2nd, 2019 from their respective points of departure.

Cyclone Fani, which has turned into an “extreme severe cyclonic” storm, is about 450 km from the Odisha coast, the India Meteorological Department or IMD said in an early morning tweet. It is likely to make landfall at Odisha coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali anytime after tomorrow afternoon, with wind speed of up to 200 km per hour.

According to the latest forecast by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JWTC), Fani, is the most severe cyclonic storm since the super cyclone of 1999 that devastated large parts of the state. About 879 cyclone centres have been set up to shelter people evacuated people, the chief minister’s office said. Each shelter will be managed by 50 volunteers trained by Odisha government, it said.

Evacuations have started on a war footing in the coastal districts of Odisha. People are being evacuated from Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam, Khordha, Cuttack and Jajpur.