high level Meeting was held by PM Modi on Cyclone ‘FANI’

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a high level meeting here today to review the preparedness of State and Central Ministries/Agencies concerned to deal with the situation arising out of Cyclone ‘FANI’.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) informed that Cyclone ‘FANI’ is expected to touch Odisha coast south of Puri in the forenoon of 3rd May with the wind speed ranging up to 180 kmph. It is likely to cause heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of Odisha including Ganjam, Gajapati, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Balasore. In West Bengal, districts of East & West Medinipur, South & North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hoogly, Jhargram and Kolkata alongwith Srikakulam, Vijayanagram and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh are also likely to be affected. IMD also warned of storm surge of about 1.5 meter height which may inundate low lying coastal areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha at the time of landfall. IMD has been issuing three hourly bulletins since 24th April and hourly bulletin from today with latest forecast to all the concerned States.

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Cabinet Secretary is holding daily meetings of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) since 29thApril, 2019 to review the preparedness of the State and Central Agencies. In these meeting Chief Secretaries/Principal Secretaries of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are attending besides the Secretaries of Central Ministries concerned. State Governments have apprised the NCMC of all the preparatory measures put in place for dealing with cyclonic Storm. Odisha is in the process of evacuating about 7.5 lakh persons and has kept ready around 900 cyclone shelters to house the evacuees. As directed by the Cabinet Secretary, all Central Ministries/Agencies have taken all necessary measures to deal with the situation arising out of the Cyclone FANI.

Ministry of Home Affairs is in continuous touch with the State Governments and the Central Agencies concerned. MHA has already released in advance Rs. 1086 crore to four states likely to be affected.   NDRF has pre-positioned 54 teams which are equipped with boats, tree-cutters, telecom equipments etc. in five States and has kept 31 teams on standby.

Indian Coast Guard and the Navy have deployed ships and helicopters for relief and rescue operations. Army and Air Force units in the three States have also been put on standby. Eight ships with Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Units are on standby at Vishakhapatnam. Surveillance aircraft and helicopters are carrying out serial surveillance along the Eastern coast. Disaster Relief teams (DRTs) and Medical Teams (MTs) are standby at Chennai, Vishakhapatnam, Chilka and Kolkata.

Ministry of Power has activated emergency response systems and is keeping in readiness transformers, DG sets and equipments etc. for immediate restoration of electricity. Ministry of Telecom is keeping all the telecom towers and exchanges under constant watch and is fully geared to restore telecom network. As precautionary measure, Ministry of Railways has cancelled the operation of 99 trains in the affected areas in Odisha.  Ministry of Health has kept ready 17 Public health response teams and 5 Quick response medical teams with emergency medicines. Ministry of Food Processing Industries is keeping in readiness ready-to-eat food packets and Ministry of Drinking Water is keeping in readiness packaged drinking water. Ministry of Shipping has disengaged all ships at Paradip Port and has deployed emergency vessels (Tugs).

NDRF is assisting the State agencies in evacuating people from the vulnerable locations and is also continuously holding community awareness campaign on how to deal with the cyclonic situation.

After review, the Prime Minister directed senior officers to take every possible measure to ensure that people are safely evacuated by the State Governments and to ensure maintenance of all essential services such as Power, Telecommunications, health, drinking water etc. and are restored immediately in the event of damages caused to them. He also directed for 24*7 functioning of control rooms.

The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Director Generals of NDRF and IMD and senior officers of PMO, MHA and IMD.