As the low pressure belt over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a severe cyclonic storm with the possibility of rushing directly towards the northwest Gulf, the Bengal government on Tuesday issued red and orange alerts for a number of of districts in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal. State.

Although the weather office predicted that cyclonic storm Dana might make landfall somewhere between Bhadrak – Paradeep to be more precise – and the Sagar Islands, the state government was leaving nothing to chance, sources said.

“The cyclonic storm is likely to hit the coastal areas between Thursday midnight and Friday morning…accordingly, the Bengal government has issued a high alert in the coastal districts of North and South, 24 Parganas and two Midnapores,” a he added. A senior Nabanna official said all schools and educational institutions in coastal districts would remain closed.

“It is very likely to make landfall around Balasore or Paradeep,” IMD sources said, adding that the exact location of the area could be given much later. “As the cyclone is moving in a counter-clockwise direction, areas on the right side of its path, like Digha and Mandarmani beaches in Bengal, may be affected,” sources said.

“We are taking maximum precautions so that no lives are lost and other damage is kept to a minimum,” sources quoted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as saying, adding that several thousand people had been evacuated from coastal areas and from the banks of tidal rivers to safer areas. .

A number of embankments, especially those in the Namkhana area of ​​the Sunderbans, have been strengthened so that tidal rivers do not breach them, Bankim Hajra Minister of State for Sunderbans said.

The Indian Meteorological Department said in its latest bulletin that the well-marked low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal had concentrated into a deep depression and was located about 700 km southeast of the Sagar Islands. There could be heavy rains and gales in southern districts like North and South 24 Parhanas, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata, two Midnapores, Bankura, Nadia and even Burdwan.

As the wind speed could be between 100 and 110 km/h with a gust of around 120 km/h, all those going to “kuccha houses” and near the coast have been asked to leave the area, a Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim said, adding that the police and disaster relief force have been put on alert and tourists at the beaches of Digha, Bakkhali and the Mausani Islands have been asked to return home .

A control room has been opened at the state secretariat in Nabanna, an official said.