Odisha alerts fishermen of cyclonic storm

Odisha Monday advised fishermen to remain cautious while venturing into sea as gusty winds triggered by cyclonic storm 'Mahasen' would prevail along the coast.

The cyclonic storm formed in the Bay of Bengal has moved westwards and lay centered about 920 km south of Paradeep port.

It would move initially northwards early Tuesday and thereafter recurve towards Bangladesh-Myanmar coast, a senior official of the Bhubaneswar meteorological centre told IANS.

Although it would have no impact on Odisha, surface wind speed reaching 30-35 km per hour and gusting to 45 km per hour from a southwesterly direction would prevail along and off state coast, he said.

Fishermen have been advised to remain cautious while venturing into sea, he said, adding the ports of Paradeep and Gopalpur in the state have been asked to keep distance warning signal number two hoisted, he said.

Meanwhile the office of the state's special relief commissioner has issued instructions to the administrative head of 10 coastal districts asking them to closely watch the situation and keep the field functionaries on alert to meet any eventuality.

The state emergency operations centre has been also activated and it has started functioning in the office of special relief commissioner round the clock, an official there told IANS.