The East Coast Railway has announced the cancellation of 103 train services passing through Odisha from May 2 as Cyclone Fani is forecast to make landfall in the state on Friday.
Train services between Bhadrak and Vizianagaram will be stopped from Thursday evening and will stay cancelled on Friday, the East Coast Railway has informed. 'Inward' services towards Bhubaneswar and Puri will be restricted from Thursday evening. Trains from Howrah to Puri will be cancelled on Thursday night; this will also affect services from Howrah to Bengaluru, Chennai and Secunderabad.
The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast heavy-to-very-heavy rainfall in coastal districts of Odisha and West Bengal on Friday. The Railways has stationed breakdown vans and relief trains to cater to areas in the two states that may be affected by Fani.
The Indian Meteorological Department informed that at 2.30am on Thursday, Cyclone Fani was about 510km south-southwest of Puri and 260km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam.
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The IMD has forecast that Fani is very likely to move north-northeast and cross the Odisha coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali near Puri by afternoon on Friday. During landfall, Fani is forecast to have maximum sustained wind speed of up to 180kmph, gusting to 200kmph.