Kolkata is facing the furious Fani as thunderstorms lashed parts of West Bengal with a wind speed at 80 kmph, reports said.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm after creating havoc in Odisha lashed West Bengal on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday uprooting trees.
The India Meteorological Department said the storm is expected to weaken into a ‘cyclonic storm’ from the existing ‘severe cyclonic storm’ and move into Bangladesh by noon.
According to reports, the weather turned rough in Kolkata as the cyclone advanced fiercely following a strong impact in coastal Digha.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation shifted residents from low lying areas to safer locations in view of the cyclonic storm.
Gale winds reaching 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph is very likely to prevail over districts in West Bengal and adjoining districts of Bangladesh during the next 6 hours, the IMD said.
Wind speeds reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph is also likely to be witnessed along and off the West Bengal coast during the same period.
The cyclone will further move towards Bangladesh where five lakh people were relocated to safe locations.
Six teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed in Sankrail, West Medinapur’s Narayangarh block, Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas, Dhamakhali ,Hasnabad of 24 Parganas district in Ramnagar of East Medinipur district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah’s rallies were cancelled due to unprecedented weather conditions in West Bengal.
The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also cancelled her political engagements.
