'Amphan' is serious; landfall on May 20 could be like 'Fani': NDRF DG

'Amphan', categorised as a super cyclone, is expected to make landfall on May 20 and it is being taken seriously as this is only the second time that such a severe cyclone will hit India after 1999, NDRF chief S N Pradhan said on Monday.

Pradhan said 'Amphan' will be an extremely severe cyclonic storm, a notch below the 'super cyclone' category, when it makes landfall.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) chief said the coming cyclone is a "serious" one as it is only the second time after 1999 in Odisha that a storm hitting the country's coast has been categorised as a 'super cyclone'.

The 1999 super cyclone was very deadly and it is expected that Amphan upon landfall will be like the 'Fani' cyclone that hit the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts in May 2019. This is a cause of concern and the central government is also very serious about it, he said in a video message. We request the affected states of Odisha and West Bengal to undertake the required measures. These states are already doing it, Pradhan said. The NDRF has already deployed a total of 37 teams in the two states apart from others that have been kept on standby.