Bhubaneswar, Oct 23: As part of preperations ahead of the predicted landfall of Cyclone Dana on the coasts of Odisha and West Bengal, two Indian Air Force (IAF) aircrafts on Wednesday lifted 150 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel and relief material to Bhubaneswar, as per an IAF official.

One IL 76 and AN 32 carrying the NDRF personnel and relief material were flown in from Bhatinda and landed in Bhubaneswar early this morning.

As per the Indian Meteorological Department, 'Cyclone Dana' is anticipated to make landfall between Bhitarkanika in Kendrapara and Bhadrak or Balasore off the Odisha coast.

The Odisha government is expecting maximum impact in districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur and Puri.

The IMD said that a deep depression over the East Central Bay of Bengal has moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 18 km per hour and lay centred at 5:30 am on Wednesday, over latitude 16.3 N and longitude 89.9 E.

The depression lay 560 km southeast of Paradip (Odisha), 630 km south-southeast of Sagar Island (West Bengal) and 630 km south-southeast of Khepupara (Bangladesh).

The depression is also likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm over the north-west Bay of Bengal by the morning of October 24 and cross north of Odisha and West Bengal coasts between the Puri and Sagar island during the night of October 24th and morning of October 25th as a severe cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 100 to 110 km per hour, gusting 120 km per hour.

An upper air cyclonic circulation also lies over the East central Arabian sea in the lower and middle tropospheric levels.

 (ANI)

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