The cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening as a 'very severe cyclonic storm' with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
A delegation of the Maharashtra government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to discuss issues like Maratha and OBC reservation, and Cyclone Tauktae relief measures, informed State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil.
Cyclonic storm 'Tauktae', which hit the Gujarat coast in Saurashtra region between Diu and Una on Monday night after passing close to the Konkan coast in Maharashtra, disrupted the power supply of 18.43 lakh consumers in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, an official release said.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the PM was not conducting an aerial survey of the cyclone-hit areas in Maharashtra because he knew that the state is led by a strong chief minister unlike in his home state Gujarat.
Afcons Infrastructure, whose chartered barge had sunk in the Arabian Sea due to a cyclone this week leaving at least 51 people dead, on Friday said it will provide compensation ranging from Rs 35-75 lakh to the families of the deceased personnel.
Speaking in the assembly, Fadnavis said a pen drive he had submitted contained a conversation between Waqf Board members Mohammad Arshad Khan and Mudasir Lambe.
The cover provided under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, which is a vital safety net for them, ended almost a year back on May 31, 2020. Ever since, there hasn't been much progress on the higher insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh promised under the newly launched Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
No lives were lost after cyclone Biparjoy made landfall. Preparations for Biparjoy were not only extensive, they were also telecast far and wide. Ahead of the cyclone's landfall, Shyam G Menon observes there was considerable publicity on how much the government was geared up to face the storm and its aftermath.
A record 119.3 mm rainfall pounded Delhi under the impact of cyclonic storm Tauktae and a western disturbance in 24 hours ending 8:30 am on Thursday, breaking all the previous records for May, the IMD said on Thursday.
The city also recorded a maximum temperature of 23.8 degrees Celsius, 16 notches below normal and the lowest in the month of May since 1951, the IMD said.
'The food security along the coastal region will be severely affected.'
Amid the Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism over the duration of his visit to cyclone-hit Konkan region of Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that he was at least taking stock of the situation on the ground and not conducting an aerial survey in a helicopter.
Rakesh Ballav, the captain of the barge, and others have been named in the FIR, a Mumbai Police spokesperson said.
The storm would continue to move north-northwestwards, intensify further and reach north Bay of Bengal near West Bengal and the adjoining north Odisha and Bangladesh coasts by the morning of May 26
Faced with high-speed wind and swelling sea, the ill-fated barge Pappa-305, with 261 crew onboard, lost anchors and smashed into an unmanned platform before sinking in the Arabian Sea after its captain ignored weather warnings and chose not to move the vessel away from the path of severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, a survivor recounted.
There is no word yet on the progress of rescue operations for the accommodation barge SS-3 and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig.
He is now left with his 16-year-old son, who also had a miraculous escape as had gone out to buy some medicine when the tragedy struck.
The navy had so far maintained that there were 273 persons on board the barge but an official on Wednesday evening said that the company which operated it has informed that there were 261 personnel on board the ill-fated barge.
'Naval Aviation has contributed through numerous humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations during which it has provided relief to fellow citizens like the recently conducted rescue operations off Mumbai during Cyclone Tauktae in May 2021.'
For a village in Azamgarh, Mubarakpur is an aberration. Its streets are clean, roads well-paved, and no open sewage drains are visible anywhere. Although a few houses look derelict, most bear signs of relative affluence, some even opulence. But that is not attributable to the village's marquee industry - silk saree weaving, which is sold as the "Banarasi silk saree" across India. Rather, it's because of the exodus of its residents and those of neighbouring villages to Saudi Arabia and the money repatriated back home.
India's first indigenous aircraft carrier will be commissioned next year and its combat capability, reach and versatility will add formidable capabilities in the country's defence, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Kochi on Friday.
As his one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew intense interest in political circles, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said there was nothing wrong in having such interaction, adding snarkily that he had not gone to meet Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif.
Nine members of a family were among the deceased in the first incident which took place around 11.15 pm on Wednesday, when Mumbai experienced heavy rains throughout the day, at the New Collector Compound on Abdul Hamid Road in the Malwani area of suburban Malad, the officials said.
Battling tidal waves as high as 10 metres and strong winds while trying to stay afloat in the cyclone-hit rough Arabian Sea for almost 12 hours, workmen rescued from a sinking barge near Mumbai narrated their horrifying experience in their quest for survival.
Afcons Infrastructure, whose chartered barge P305 with 261 personnel at the Bombay High offshore oilfield was wrecked by cyclonic storm Tauktae earlier this week, on Thursday said the weather deteriorated rapidly and reached levels far worse than forecasts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reviewed the post-cyclone situation and damages caused by Cyclone Yaas in the state at a meeting in Bhubaneswar where Odisha government demanded long term solutions to mitigate problems of repeated cyclones and provision of disaster resilient power systems.
The Bombay high Court on Friday initiated a judicial inquiry into the building collapse incident in Malwani area of Mumbai on Wednesday, which claimed 12 lives.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
The location of the landfall is north of Dhamra and south of Bahanaga, close to Bahanaga block, on the coast, around 50 km of Balasore, he said.
Unless you've been hiding under an Internet-blocking rock, you must have chanced upon some of the crisp, polite, informative and frequently witty posts crafted by the Mumbai police. Mrigank Warrier meets Sunchika Pandey, the brains behind the Mumbai police quips.