Severe cyclone Asani was raging over the Bay of Bengal, about 300 km southeast of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, packing wind speed of 105 km per hour amidst indication of a gradual weakening later Tuesday.
The cyclone was likely to move closer to north Andhra Pradesh coast by Tuesday night and then re-curve to move parallel to north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast and expected to lose steam gradually, the weather office said.
The cyclone, which was moving at a speed of 25 km per hour on Monday, had slowed down considerably and had moved moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 5 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred at 5:30 am, 300 km southeast of Kakinada, 330 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 510 km south-southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 590 km south-southwest of Puri (Odisha), the India Meteorological Department said.
The IMD has been keeping a close track of the cyclone and has issued 20 national bulletins so far, updating local administration about the storm and suggesting measures to save lives.
Under the influence of the cyclone, Odisha and West Bengal had received heavy to moderate rainfall on Monday. The weather office said that very high sea conditions were likely to prevail over west-central and adjoining south Bay of Bengal and asked fishermen not to venture out in the region from Tuesday for at least two days.
It also advised that tourism activities in coastal areas and sea beaches be suspended till May 13. In Odisha, two to three spells of rain occurred in districts such as Khurda, Ganjam, Puri, Cuttack and Bhadrak.
The cyclone is likely to cause heavy rain in the southern part of West Bengal including Kolkata, Howrah, Purba Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas and Nadia districts between Monday and Thursday, the weather office had said.
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