Bhubaneswar: Over 7 lakh people will be evacuated from coastal areas to safer places in view of expected landfall of very severely cyclonic storm FANI in Odisha.

Around 7.50 lakh people will be relocated ahead of the cyclone FANI. At least 25,425 people have been shifted to the safe locations in 11 districts so far. All the arrangements have been made at 3001 shelter houses in different districts, informed the Special Relief Commissioner Office here today.

Total 70 officers have been assigned for nine districts and 25 NDRF teams have been sent for relief and rescue operations at the shelter houses, it said.

As the cyclonic storm FANI has intensified into an extreme severe cyclonic storm and it is likely to hit Odisha coast on May 3, people are being evacuated from Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam, Khordha, Cuttack and Jajpur districts.

The government has cancelled leaves and holidays of all the officials in the Energy and Health departments as part of preparedness in view of the possible damage to power supply and distribution during the cyclone.

Three special trains are running from Puri for safe return of the tourists. Also, five OSRTC buses are in service of the tourists to transport them from the pilgrim town to Howrah.

As per the latest IMD bulletin, the extremely severe cyclonic storm FANI lay centered at 8.30 am on May 2 over westcentral Bay of Bengal about 420 km south-southwest of Puri and 210 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam. The storm is very likely move north-northeastwards and cross Odisha coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali around Puri by May 3 with maximum sustained wind speed of 170-180 kmph gusting to 200 kmph.