74,000 evacuated from Gujarat’s coastal districts, prohibitory orders as Kutch braces for Biparjoy landfall

Meanwhile, heavy to very heavy rainfall was witnessed in some parts of Kutch and Devbhumi Dwarka — two districts that are expected to be the most impacted by the cyclone, which the IMD designated as “very severe”.

According to IMD Gujarat Director Manorama Mohanty, the cyclone would hit near the Jakhau port Thursday evening “between 4 pm and 8pm”. The Met Department said it would make landfall near Jakhau port, which is between Mandvi in Kutch and Karachi in Pakistan, with a sustained surface wind speed of 125-135 kilometres per hour (kmph) gusting to 150 kmph.

“On June 15, heavy to very heavy rainfall would be witnessed at a few places and extremely heavy at isolated places in the districts of Kutch, Porbandar, Jamnagar and Morbi”, Mohanty said.

Kutch has a huge population of livestock and many maldharis live in huts and kutcha houses. Officers said that the maldharis living along the coast have been evacuated to shelter homes while allowing a few individuals to take care of their buffalos, cows and smaller ruminants such as goats and sheep.

To enable communication in the event of mobile tower disruptions, the government, with the help of telecom service providers, has enabled “intra-circle connectivity”, which would allow customers of one service provider to access connection of another in the event of a disruption, Relief Commissioner Alok Pandey told reporters. The service has been activated in Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagadh and Morbi districts till 11.59 pm, June 17. Ham radio sets and satellite phones were also activated and would be made available, he said.

Officers in all 10 talukas have been provided wireless sets to ensure that the talukas remain connected with the district headquarters in Bhuj in case the cyclonic winds snap conventional communication lines like mobile phone network, internet and telephones, officers said. Satellite phones have also been allotted to the district, they added.

According to the latest update from the Met department, the very severe cyclonic storm in the northeast Arabian Sea was 260 kilometres southwest of Jakhau port in Kutch and 270 kms southwest of Devbhumi Dwarka coast at 2:30 pm Wednesday and was moving towards the Jakhau coast.

As Kutch braced for the landfall of the very severe cyclonic storm, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who has been camping in the district for the past two days, visited the Air Force Station in Bhuj Wednesday to review preparedness of the force to respond to the likely impact of cyclone. He also visited GK General Hospital, the district’s biggest hospital, to see arrangements for addressing any medical emergency arising out of the landfall of Biparjoy.

“We have evacuated 34,335 people living in huts and kutcha houses in vulnerable areas up to 10 kms inland from the coast. These include 4,000 salt-pan workers. We have also issued prohibitory orders to keep shops and offices closed from Wednesday evening till Friday morning and have also issued orders to suspend public transport service in coastal talukas from 6 am Thursday to 12 pm Friday,” Kutch Collector Amit Arora told The Indian Express.

Two teams each of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in the district, while teams of the Army and Indian Air Force have also been kept on standby.

The Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited (PGVCL) has stocked up 20,000 poles and other materials to repair any damage. “We have instructions to discontinue power supply in the coastal areas once the wind speed crosses the threshold of 60 kmph and not to restore feeders if they trip tomorrow as it can lead to accidents,” said Preeti Sharma, joint managing director of PGVCL, adding, “Our power distribution network is quite extensive in Kutch having 4.5 lakh poles. There have been complaints of power outages due to rains and gusty winds but our 120 teams having 500 people are on the field and they are restoring feeders immediately as of now.”

Briefing media persons in Bhuj on Wednesday evening, state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel said seven out of 10 talukas of Kutch are expected to be severely hit by Biparjoy. Nearly 120 coastal villages in these seven talukas are vulnerable to the cyclone fury, he added.

He said that 35,822 people had been evacuated by early evening Wednesday from these villages and 7,803 more were to be shifted to safer places by late evening. He said that 270 pregnant women who were expecting deliveries between June 11 and June 20 have been shifted to health facilities in the district.

The Minister said that 187 cyclone shelters have been set up in the district where power generators have been installed to ensure power supply in case grid power supply fails. He said the district has been allotted four satellite phones; one Ham radio set each has been set up in Bhuj, Nakhatrana and Mandvi.

Patel said that 1.25 lakh food packets have been prepared. Four teams of NDRF, two of SDRF, eight columns of the Indian Army as well as teams of the Indian Coast Guard, BSF and Indian Air Force are also standing by for any emergency requiring relief and rescue operations, he added.

-With inputs from ENS, Gandhinagar.