Cyclone Tauktae: PM Modi to visit Gujarat, Diu today to review damage
May 19, 2021
New Delhi [India], May 19 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat and Diu on Wednesday to review the situation and damage caused by Cyclone Tauktae.
The Prime Minister will leave Delhi at 9.30 am today and land at Bhavnagar from where he will proceed for an aerial survey of Una, Diu, Jafarabad and Mahuva. He will also hold a review meeting at Ahmedabad after the aerial survey.
"PM Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat on Wednesday to conduct an aerial survey of the areas of Amreli, Gir Somnath and Bhavnagar districts hit by Cyclone Tauktae. The PM will also hold a review meeting with CM Vijay Rupani and top officials of the State later in Ahmedabad", informed Gujarat CMO as well in a tweet.
Tauktae stands to be the strongest storm to impact Gujarat since 1998 as it battered parts of the state and left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles and trees, and damaging several houses and roads, before weakening, officials said on Tuesday.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday held a conversation with his Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani to discuss the impact of Cyclone Tauktae as the cyclonic storm made landfall in the neighbouring state late in the night a day earlier.
The cyclone, whose intensity had weakened by today but heavy rains are likely to continue, with wind speeds reaching 125 kilometre per hour, the weather department has said.
Cyclone tauktae has impacted the weather conditions in several parts of Northern India. Many areas like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi are likely to witness rainfall in the coming few hours.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had on May 17 held a meeting to review the preparedness and assistance being provided by the Armed Forces to civil authorities to tackle the situation arising out of Cyclone Tauktae.
Singh has assured that 11 Indian Navy Diving Teams have been kept on standby in case of any request from authorities of affected states.
The Gujarat government had also evacuated people living in coastal areas to safer places after the India Meteorological Department issued warnings of tidal waves and flooding following the cyclone.
Rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Indian Army have been sent to severely-hit regions in Gujarat state, and the region of Diu.
Meanwhile, Indian Coast Guard and the Navy deployed ships and helicopters for relief, search and rescue operations. Air Force and Engineer task force units of Army, with boats and rescue equipment, are on standby for deployment. Seven ships with Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Units are on standby along western coast. Surveillance aircraft and helicopters are carrying out serial surveillance along the western coast.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said that "all possible measures in coordination with ODAG (Offshore Defence Advisory Group) and MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre)" are being taken to ensure the safety of personnel and vessels in the aftermath of cyclone Tauktae.
After Tauktae hit the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai in the early hours of Monday where ONGC's major production installations and drilling rigs are located many unfortunate incidences have occurred involving three construction barges of M/s Afcons working on a project of ONGC in Western Offshore fields in the Arabian Sea and one drilling rig of ONGC deployed for exploration purpose.
As per an official statement, INS Kochi and INS Kolkata - two ships of the Indian Navy and one Tug Boat of Afcons, one OSV (Offshore Supply vessel) of ONGC, Coast Guard vessel 'ICG Samarth' have been pressed into service for the rescue service of Barge 'Papaa-305' that started drifting after its anchors gave way. Three more ONGC OSVs and two MSVs (Multipurpose Support Vessel) have been mobilized for the same purpose.
