Union Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, recently headed a high-level meeting with senior officials of the port authority to discuss preparations for Cyclone Biparjoy. The cyclone is expected to make landfall on or around June 15th along the Gujarat coast. During the virtual meeting, Sonowal directed officials to take every possible measure to ensure the safety of people living in vulnerable areas, as per the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for Saurashtra and Kutch coasts in Gujarat due to the extremely severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy over the east-central and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea. The IMD added that storm surges could impact Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, and Morbi in Gujarat, with a surge of about 2-3 meters.
The weather office also issued an advisory for fishermen for the next five days. Fishermen at sea are advised to return to the coast.
The IMD said the cyclone is expected to move northward till June 14th and 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 June 15th. The cyclonic storm may have a maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph.
The weather office also cautioned about damage to power and communication poles, as well as major damage to roads, flooding of escape routes, and minor disruption of railways, overhead power lines, and signaling systems. Widespread damage to standing crops and plantations is also expected.
Small boats and country crafts may get detached from moorings while squally wind speeds could reach 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph on June 12th, becoming 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph from June 13th to the evening of June 14th.
The IMD said that gale wind speed reaching 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph is likely to prevail from June 14th evening and become 120-130 kmph gusting to 145 kmph from June 15th morning for the subsequent 12 hours. Sea conditions are also expected to be rough to very rough until June 14th evening and high to phenomenal thereafter till June 15th at noon, with sea conditions expected to improve after June 15th.
