With Cyclone Biparjoy expected to make landfall at Jakhau in Kutch on Thursday evening, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel kept a close watch on the preparedness as he chaired two high-level review meetings at the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Gandhinagar with Chief Secretary Raj Kumar, Relief Commissioner Alok Pandey and Regional Director of Meteorological Department Manorama Mohanty. The officials briefed the CM about the preparations. Providing information about the state’s preparedness after the second meeting that was held late Wednesday evening, an official release stated that more than 74,000 people were evacuated to safer places from the eight coastal districts that are likely to be affected the most in the cyclone. These districts are bracing up for heavy to very heavy rains with gusty winds as Cyclone Biparjoy is likely to make landfall at a wind speed of 125-150 kmph anytime between 4pm and 8pm Thursday near Jakhau, said Mohanty following a meeting at SEOC in the morning. The maximum impact of the cyclone is expected in Kutch, Morbi, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar districts, while there is a possibility of heavy rainfall in the adjoining North Gujarat districts such as Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Patan, and Mehsana on June 16-17 when the cyclone would subside, she said. Raj Kumar has issued directives to district collectors of North Gujarat to make necessary preparations. “To address the potential impact of Cyclone Biparjoy, the Commissioner of Relief has deployed 18 teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 12 teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in the affected districts. The deployment of rescue teams has been done to meet the specific requirements of each district, with six teams stationed in Kutch, three teams in Devbhoomi Dwarka, two teams in Rajkot, and Jamnagar, and one team each in Junagadh, Porbandar, Gir Somnath, Morbi, and Valsad. The SDRF has allocated two teams each to Kutch, Jamnagar and Devbhoomi Dwarka, while Junagadh, Porbandar, Gir Somnath, Morbi, Patan, and Banaskantha have one team each. Additionally, Surat has a reserve team in place," an official release stated. “A team of 597 personnel from the Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited has been assembled to swiftly restore the electricity supply after the cyclone subsides. Essential wire poles have been made readily available at all substations, and teams from other districts have been mobilised to expedite the power restoration process in the affected areas,” the release added. On Wednesday, the CM also contacted Sarpanches of various coastal villages of Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Kutch and Gir Somnath districts through the CM Dashboard and got information about the status in their villages, said an official release. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence stated that all of its arms – Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard have prepared themselves to help the locals in view of the cyclonic storm in Gujarat. Defence PRO and MoD spokesperson, Wing Commander N Manish, in a video statement stated that among other things, the Army has deployed more than 27 relief columns across Gujarat at various locations even as engineers and medical teams have also been kept ready at various locations. Similarly, the Air Force has kept its aircrafts and helicopters on standby at various locations in Gujarat and elsewhere. The Indian Navy has positioned 10-15 teams of divers and swimmers for relief and rescue operations. The Border Security Force (BSF) shifted about 50 villagers of Gunao located close to the Jakhau coast to the BSF outpost in Gunao as part of precautionary measures to combat the cyclone. Inspector General BSF Ravi Gandhi visited the coastal areas of Bhuj to oversee the measures adopted to mitigate the devastating effects of the cyclone and took stock of the readiness to deal with any contingency, a statement said.
