Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the landfall of Cyclone Dana in between Bhitarkanika and Dhamra late night today, the Odisha Government has evacuated around 3.5 lakh people from the possible affected areas.

Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management, Suresh Pujari informed approximately four lakh people of 11 districts will be affected due to Cyclone Dana. He added 2,531 villages, 12 urban areas and 55 wards under 60 blocks will be worst affected.

The Government has set up 842 permanent and 6,445 temporary relief centres. Of them, 4,756 relief centres are operational, the Minister stated. Over 160 quintals of dry food and 93 quintals of rice food have been distributed among evacuees. Also, cooked food being provided at all the centres, he informed.

Round-the-clock control room has been set up for the people seeking help during the cyclone, said Pujari. The helpline number is 9437060000.

The Government made arrangement for animals at 360 centres. So far, 6,454 animals have been shifted to safer places.

As per the latest bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department, the Severe Cyclonic Storm Dana over northwest Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph during past six hours and lay centred at 1430 hrs IST of today over the same region, about 150 km southeast of Paradip (Odisha), 180 km south-southeast of Dhamara (Odisha) and 250 km south of Sagar Island (West Bengal).