Ahead of PM's visit, heavy rain lashes parts of Odisha, depression crosses coastal areas

Bhubaneswar: A depression over the Bay of Bengal crossed the south Odisha coast close to Gopalpur in Ganjam district early on Saturday morning, bringing heavy rain in several districts of the state, IMD said.

The India Meteorological Department's report comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Odisha, during which he will unveil development projects worth more than Rs 60,000 crore in sectors such as telecommunications, railways and higher education, officials said.

Initially, the place for the PM's public meeting was fixed at Berhampur in Ganjam district in the southern part of the state, but it was later changed to Jharsuguda due to a forecast of heavy rain in that region on Saturday.

However, the IMD said Jharsuguda is among nine districts where thunderstorms and lightning with gusty surface wind speed reaching 20-30 kmph are likely to occur.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the "depression over the Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards with a speed of 12 kmph during the past 6 hours, crossed the south Odisha coast close to Gopalpur around 4.30 am Saturday".

Depression is a weather condition that follows a well-marked low-pressure system and precedes a cyclonic storm.

At 5.30 am on Saturday, the system lay centred over south coastal Odisha, about 10 km west-northwest of Gopalpur and 120 km west-southwest of Puri.

“It is very likely to continue to move nearly westwards across south Odisha and Chhattisgarh and weaken gradually into a well-marked low-pressure area during the next 24 hours,” the IMD said.

The entire coastal and southern region of the state received heavy rainfall on Friday night, and the downpour continued this morning, an official said.

The IMD has issued an orange warning of heavy-to-very-heavy rain with lightning and wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph for Nabarangpur district, and a yellow alert of downpour for Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kalahandi and Nuapada districts.

The weather office also predicted thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds over Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Sonepur, Boudh, Bolangir and Kandhamal districts.

Fishermen were advised not to venture into the sea till the afternoon of September 27.