Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced financial assistance of 1,000 crore immediate relief activities in Gujarat which has been affected by Cyclone Tauktae. PM Modi today held a review meeting in Ahmedabad, to assess the situation and damage caused by the calaimity. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was also present among other officials.
Besides relief, the Union Government shall also deploy an Inter-Ministerial Team to visit the state to assess the extent of damage.
The PM today also conducted an aerial survey of areas affected by the cyclone in Gujarat and adjoining Union Territory of Diu and held a meeting with top officials here later to review the situation. The prime minister landed at Bhavnagar from Delhi around noon and boarded a helicopter for a survey of cyclone- affected areas in Gir-Somnath, Bhavnagar and Amreli districts of Gujarat along with Diu. He was accompanied by chief minister Rupani.
The cyclone made landfall between Diu and Una town of Gir-Somnath district in Gujarat on Monday night. As many as 45 persons lost their lives in cyclone- related incidents in the state as it left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles, trees and damaging thousands of houses and roads.
Over 16,000 houses were damaged, more than 40,000 trees and over 70,000 electric poles uprooted, while 5,951 villages faced total power blackout. The storm triggered heavy rains in many parts from Saurashtra coast to North Gujarat with 46 talukas receiving over 100 mm of downpour, 12 of them recording 150 mm to 175 mm of rains.
Categorised as an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Monday, Tauktae has now weakened into a depression and lay centred over south Rajasthan and adjoining Gujarat region on Wednesday morning, the India Meteorological Department said.
(With agency inputs)
