Cyclone Remal: Kolkata airport suspends flights from Sunday noon to Monday morning; Kolkata port also announces suspension of operations | Indiablooms

Kolkata: Due to the impending cyclonic storm “Remal”, the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata has announced a suspension of flight operations for 21 hours from Sunday noon.

“In view of the impact of Cyclone Remal on the coastal region of West Bengal including Kolkata, a meeting was held with the stakeholders and it was decided to suspend flight operations from May 26, 12:00 IST to May 27, 09:00 IST due to forecast strong winds and heavy to very heavy rainfall in Kolkata,” NSCBI Airport Director C Pattabhi said in a statement.

The Kolkata Port has announced that it will suspend all cargo and container handling operations for 12 hours from Sunday evening. According to port authorities, operations will be suspended from 6 pm Sunday to 6 am Monday, news agency PTI reported.

The low pressure system first observed in the Bay of Bengal on May 22 has intensified into a stronger system which is now located in the centre of the Bay of Bengal.

Regions expected to be affected include West Bengal, coastal Bangladesh, Tripura and other parts of the northeastern states.

Here are the latest updates on Cyclone Remal:

According to IMD, Cyclone Remal is expected to make landfall between Sagar Island in southern West Bengal and Khepupara in Bangladesh around midnight on May 26.

The latest forecast of the weather agency assumes that the centre of the deep depression will be over the central-eastern Bay of Bengal about 420 km south of Khepupara (Bangladesh) and about 420 km south-southeast of the Sagar Islands (West Bengal).

When the cyclone makes landfall on the night of May 26, it is forecast to cause a storm surge of up to 1.5 metres, possibly inundating low-lying areas along the coast of West Bengal and Bangladesh.

Thousands of residents of coastal villages in West Bengal are likely to be evacuated to cyclone shelters as the IMD has issued a red alert for districts like South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Kolkata, Howrah and East Midnapore.

To prepare for the storm, the government has constructed around 115 multipurpose cyclone shelters in the 24 South Parganas and over 100 in the 24 North Parganas. The IMD also forecasts that other northeastern states like Tripura, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur will also experience rains and strong winds.

Tripura has issued an alert based on the severe weather forecast by the IMD. Deputy Secretary of Revenue Dr Tamal Majumder said that Tripura is likely to experience heavy rains and gusty winds from May 25 to 28.

Bangladesh is also preparing for the severe cyclonic storm and has equipped nearly 4,000 shelters with dry food and water. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) is expected to issue the “major danger signal” number 10 between midnight and 1:00 am on Sunday.

This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season and will be named ‘Remal’, meaning ‘sand’ in Arabic, in accordance with the naming convention for cyclones in the Indian Ocean.