Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of States and Central Ministries/Agencies concerned to deal with the situation arising out of Cyclone ‘Tauktae’.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has informed that Cyclone ‘Tauktae’ is expected to touch Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Naliya around 18 May afternoon with the wind speed ranging upto 175 kmph.

It is likely to cause heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of Gujarat, including extremely heavy falls in Junagadh and Gir Somnath and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places in the districts of Saurashtra Kutch and Diu namely Gir Somnath, Diu, Junagadh, Porbandar, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Amreli, Rajkot, Jamnagar.

IMD also warned of storm surge of about 2-3 meters above astronomical tide to inundate coastal areas of Morbi, Kutch, Devbhoomi Dwarka and Jamnagar districts and 1-2 meters along Porbandar, Junagarh, Diu, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar and 0.5 to 1 meter over the remaining coastal districts of Gujarat during 18 May afternoon around the time of landfall.

IMD has been issuing three hourly bulletins since 13 May with the latest forecast to all the concerned States.

It was discussed that Cabinet Secretary is in continuous touch with Chief Secretaries of all the Coastal States and Central Ministries/ Agencies concerned.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is reviewing the situation round the clock and is in touch with the State Governments/ UTs and the Central Agencies concerned. MHA has already released the first instalment of SDRF in advance to all States. NDRF has pre-positioned 42 teams which are equipped with boats, tree-cutters, telecom equipment etc. in six States and has kept 26 teams on standby.

Indian Coast Guard and the Navy have deployed ships and helicopters for relief, search and rescue operations. Air Force and Engineer task force units of the 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. Disaster Relief teams (DRTs) and Medical Teams (MTs) are standby at Trivandrum, Kannur and other locations along western coast.

The Ministry of Power has activated emergency response systems and is keeping in readiness transformers, DG sets and equipment etc. for immediate restoration of electricity.

The Ministry of Telecom is keeping all the telecom towers and exchanges under constant watch and is fully geared to restore telecom networks. The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has issued an advisory to the States/ UTs, likely to be affected, for health sector preparedness and response on COVID in affected areas. They have also kept ready 10 Quick response medical teams and 5 Public health response teams, with emergency medicines.

The Ministry of Port, Shipping and Waterways has taken measures to secure all shipping vessels and has deployed emergency vessels (Tugs).
NDRF is assisting the State agencies in their preparedness for evacuating people from the vulnerable locations and is also continuously holding community awareness campaigns on how to deal with the cyclonic situation.

After review, the Prime Minister directed senior officers to take every possible measure to ensure that people are safely evacuated by the State Governments and to ensure maintenance of all essential services such as Power, Telecommunications, health, drinking water etc. and are restored immediately in the event of damages caused to them.

He further directed them to ensure special preparedness on COVID management in hospitals, vaccine cold chain and other medical facilities on power back up and storage of essential medicines and to plan for unhindered movement of oxygen tankers.

He also directed for round the clock functioning of control rooms. He also said that special care needs to be taken to ensure that there is least possible disruption in oxygen supply from Jamnagar. He also spoke about the need to involve the local community for timely sensitisation and relief measures.

The meeting was attended by Home Minister, MoS Home, Principal Secretary to PM, Cabinet Secretary, Secretaries of Ministries/ Departments of Home, Civil Aviation, Power, Telecom, Shipping, Fisheries, Members & Member Secretary of NDMA, Chairman, Railway Board, Director Generals of NDRF and IMD, and senior officers of PMO, MHA and IMD.