Cyclone Fani weakens

The "Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm" Fani that made landfall at Puri on Friday morning with a wind speed of around 245 kmph has weakened into a "Very Severe Cyclonic Storm" with a wind speed of approximately 150-160 kmph. As it continues to move North-North East (NNE), it is likely to further weaken into a "Severe Cyclonic Storm" said IMD.

"Fani weakened into VSCS at 1130 IST near 20.2N/85.9E about 10 km east of Bhubaneswar & 30 km south of Cuttack. To move NNE and weaken into SCS," IMD tweeted.

The system is likely to weaken gradually and emerge into Gangetic West Bengal as a "severe cyclonic storm" by the early morning of May 4. Thereafter, it is expected to move further north-northeastwards and emerge into Bangladesh by May 4 evening as a cyclonic storm.

Mrityunjay Mohapatra, IMD official, Delhi, informed: "As Fani weakens and moves north-northeastwards, by evening it may weaken into a severe cyclonic storm over the extreme northern part of Odisha."

"It has moved away from Andhra Pradesh, so, we have issued a de-warning. Three districts in the state were impacted by heavy rainfall," he said.

Telecommunication networks have been reportedly partially disrupted in Puri and Bhubaneswar districts in Odisha due to the cyclonic storm making landfall on Friday morning.

In addition to the 147 trains (scheduled from May 1 to May 3) cancelled earlier, East Coast Railway has cancelled 10 more trains.

Indian Navy's P-8I and Dornier are being scheduled to be launched in the afternoon for undertaking an aerial survey to assess the extent of impact and devastation in the wake of Fani crossing the coast.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has cancelled all flights to and from Kolkata Airport from 3 pm today to 8 am tomorrow. The closure timing has been revised from 9.30 pm today to 6 pm tomorrow.

NDRF team deployed at Digha in West Bengal has evacuated a total of 132 people, including 52 children, from Dattapur and Tajpur. They have been taken to a shelter.

SVJ Kumar, IMD official Visakhapatnam, said that the influence of Fani will be over Srikakulam for the next 12 hours.

"Under system's influence, many places over Srikakulam will receive light to moderate rainfall, with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall. Wind speed of 70-80 gusting to 90 km/hr will be there in Srikakulam. System influence will be mostly over Srikakulam for next 12 hrs," he said.