75 trains cancelled as Cyclone Jawad expected to make landfall today

With the cyclonic storm, Jawad, expected to make landfall today, Indian Railways has cancelled around 36 trains that were scheduled to depart on December 4.

These mostly include trains that were scheduled to depart from Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Howrah (West Bengal) and Puri (Odisha).

Further, 38 trains scheduled to depart on December 5 and one on December 6 have also been cancelled as a precautionary measure.

New Tinsukia-Bangalore Express (22502) from New Tinsukia on December 3 will run on a diverted route via Kharagpur-Jharsuguda-Ballaharsa instead of the Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam route.

AK Satpathy, Divisional Railway Manager of East Coast Railway, which handle major parts of Odisha and Northern Andhra Pradesh, said, "Waltair Division of East Coast Railway is prepared to face the challenges posed by cyclone Jawad. We are in touch with the state government, SDRF, NDRF and other agencies. Our personnel are on alert and in full preparedness."

As per the last bulletin released by IMD 'Jawad' is likely to weaken gradually and move nearly northwards during the next 12 hours.

"It is likely to weaken gradually and move nearly northwards during next 12 hours and then north-northeastwards along Odisha coast reaching near Puri around December 5 noon as a Deep Depression. Subsequently, it is likely to weaken further and continue to move north-northeastwards along Odisha coast towards West Bengal coast," said IMD in an official statement.

The national weather forecasting agency further informed that Jawad over the west-central Bay of Bengal moved slightly northwards with a speed of 4 kmph during the past six hours.

"Jawad lay centered at 05.30 hrs IST of today, December 4, 2021, over west-central Bay of Bengal near Latitude 16.2°N and Longitude 84.9°E, about 230 km southeast of Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 340 km south of Gopalpur (Odisha), 410 km south-southwest of Puri (Odisha) and 490 km south-southwest of Paradip (Odisha)," the IMD said.