After Cyclone Fani washed up the shores of coastal Odisha, the storm has moved up to West Bengal, but the people in Bangladesh heaved a sigh of relief as it weakened on Saturday.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Kolkata witnessed wind speeds of 30-40 kmph with moderate to heavy rainfall overnight. However, no major causalities or fatalities have been reported from the state.
"The severe cyclonic storm Fani entered Bengal at 12.30 am through Odisha's Balasore. It crossed Kharagpur packing wind of 70-80 kmph, gusting to 90 kmph," said Regional Meteorological Centre's Deputy Director General Sanjib Bandyopadhyay.
Randeep Kumar Rana, the DIG Operations of NDRF, said that Cyclone Fani has weakened in nature and is covering areas of West Bengal and is further moving towards Bangladesh. He said that nine teams of NDRF are there and the situation is under control. There is not much damaging effect in the state.
The flight operations have also been resumed at Kolkata International Airport. The first to start operations was Air India - from Kolkata to Agartala. The aircraft departed from Kolkata at 9.57 am.
A few trees and metal hoardings were uprooted at the coastal cities like Digha, Mandarmani, Tajpur, Sandehskhali and Contai, Kharagpur and Burdwan. Heavy rains had lashed many parts of the state but no major incidents were reported.
Air India has also announced additional flights from Delhi to Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar to Delhi for passengers stranded due to Cyclone Fani. The airline has also offered its help to the people of Odisha by shipping relief materials to victims of the cyclone free-of-cost.
The cyclonic storm had its fair share in destroying the temple town of Puri and neighbouring areas of the district.
