The Western Railways cancelled 70 trains and curtailed the journeys of 28 others as Cyclone Vayu inched closer to the Gujarat coastline, growing stronger along the way. The cancellations came into effect from 6 pm yesterday, and is expected to extend over two days across affected areas. Union Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan said that ‘Vayu’ which intensified into a severe cyclonic storm two days ago will hit the Gujarat coast on Thursday afternoon with a windspeed of 155-156 kilometres per hour.
The government has evacuated around 3.1 lakh people, and as many as 52 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed for rescue and relief operations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted to say that the centre was constantly monitoring the situation.
While the Gujarat government has evacuated over 3 lakh people from low-lying areas of Gujarat and 10,000 from Diu to safer places, the NDRF has “pre-positioned” 52 teams equipped with boats, tree-cutters and telecom equipment, Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted yesterday.