india

Updated: Dec 15, 2018 23:59 IST

The Andhra Pradesh government is preparing itself to face heavy rains coupled with winds following a cyclone warning in the south coastal region and Rayalaseema in next 48 hours.

Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu alerted the district collectors of six coastal districts of East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore to handle the cyclone threat. He is monitoring the situation through real time governance and preparing to position official teams in the vulnerable areas depending on gravity of the situation, he said.

A control room has been set up in the state secretariat at Velagapudi on Friday.

State Disaster Management Authority Director Prasanna Venkatesh,said teams of National Disaster Response Force and SDRF have been positioned in the coastal districts of Guntur, Krishna, West Godavari, East Godavari and Visakhapatnam and the government machinery put on high alert, reported PTI news agency.

Two teams of SDRF (80 members) and two of NDRF (60 members) have been deployed in these districts with all necessary equipment for evacuation and rescue operations, he added, it said.

Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre of India Meteorological Department in its afternoon bulletin on Friday said it has put itself on a “pre-cyclonic watch for Andhra Pradesh” in the wake of deep depression over southeast Bay of Bengal.

The deep depression over southeast Bay of Bengal that formed on Thursday night moved north-northwest wards and it lay centred at 8.30 am on Friday over southeast Bay of Bengal, the bulletin said.

“It is very likely to intensify further into a cyclonic storm during next 24 hours and a ‘severe’ cyclonic storm in subsequent 24 hours. It is very likely to move north-northwest wards and cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Ongole and Kakinada during December 17 afternoon,” the bulletin said.

The sea will be rough to very rough along and off south Andhra Pradesh and north Tamil Nadu coast on December 15 and “very rough to high” on December 16 and 17, it added.

“We have not issued any alert yet. The course of the cyclone remains the same and is likely to make landfall on the afternoon of December 17. The intensity, we think, will be less than the recent cyclone Gaja that hit the Tamil Nadu,” said Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, senior scientist at IMD.