Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting West Bengal and Odisha tomorrow to survey the ground situation after Cyclone Amphan clobbered the eastern states, leaving at least 72 dead and blowing up shanties, uprooting thousands of trees and swamping low-lying areas.
Earlier in the day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had urged the Prime Minister to visit the state to review the situation.
The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone will dissipate into a deep depression and a depression, the two stages that signify a further weakening of the cyclone, in the next few hours.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had earlier advised people against going out until government's green signal.
It also said that thunderstorm accompanied by lightning and squall is likely over Bihar; with lightning and gusty winds at isolated places over Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and Meghalaya.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had been monitoring the situation at state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday night, said the impact of Amphan was "worse than coronavirus" and claimed damages due to the cyclone could be in the region of Rs 1 lakh crore.
Here are the updates on Cyclone Amphan:
Cyclone Amphan: Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviews situation in Odisha, West Bengal
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Thursday reviewed situation in the cyclone-affected areas of Odisha and West Bengal with the States and Central Ministries/Agencies concerned in the aftermath of cyclone Amphan, the Government of India said.
Chief Secretaries of Odisha and West Bengal informed that timely and accurate forecast by India Meteorological Department and advance deployment of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) facilitated in the evacuation of about five lakh people in West Bengal and about two lakh in Odisha, the government informed.
This has resulted in minimal loss of human lives, considering the fact that the intensity of the Amphan was next only to that of the super cyclone that struck Odisha in 1999 causing large scale devastation, it added.