Cyclone Biparjoy: Western Railway cancels 23 more trains, short-terminates 3  

The Western Railway on Thursday cancelled 23 more trains and short-terminated three as a precautionary measure ahead of the landfall of cyclone Biparjoy. "23 trains have been cancelled, 3 trains short-terminated and 7 trains short-originated. With this, 99 trains have been cancelled, 39 trains have been short-terminated, while 38 trains short-originated as a precautionary measure," said Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway. 

Cyclone Biparjoy started making landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat's Kutch district on Thursday evening after churning across the Arabian Sea for over 10 days. The landfall process will be completed by midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Strong winds and heavy rains struck Kutch and Saurashtra coasts as hundreds of personnel from disaster management agencies and other departments remained on high alert for relief and rescue operations. 

"Dense convective clouds have entered Kutch and Devbhumi Dwarka districts and therefore, the landfall process has commenced. It will continue until midnight," IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said in New Delhi. Landfall indicates a cyclonic storm moving over land after being over water. 

The eye of the cyclone is around 50 km in diameter. Biparjoy is marching ahead with a speed of 13-14 kmph. Thus, it will take around five hours for the wall cloud and the eye to completely cross into the land, Mohapatra said. Destructive wind force uprooted many trees and electric polls near Jakhau and Mandvi towns of Kutch as tin sheets and plastic shades were blown away. 

Authorities evacuated around one lakh people living in vulnerable areas in coastal districts of Gujarat following a prompt warning from the IMD about the "extensive damaging potential" of the cyclone, the second powerful storm to hit the state in three years after 'Tauktae' in May 2021. 

Fifteen teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 12 of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and personnel of the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, Indian Coast Guard and Border Security Force have been deployed for relief and rescue operations. The Met office had earlier warned of very heavy (11.5 cm to 20.4 cm) to extremely heavy rainfall (over 20.5 cm) in Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Rajkot, Morbi, and Junagarh.