The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has said that no flight will depart or arrive at Kolkata airport between 3 pm today till 8 am tomorrow (May 4) due to cyclone Fani.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm made landfall at around 8 a.m. in Puri but thanks to enough advance warning, about 11 lakh people had already been evacuated from vulnerable and low-lying areas of at least 11 coastal districts by Thursday.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has said that no flight will depart or arrive at Kolkata airport between 3 pm today till 8 am tomorrow (May 4) due to cyclone Fani.
In an advisory, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that they have asked the Airlines to discontinue flight operations from Kolkata Airport from 1500 IST today upto 0800 IST on 04/05/2019 in view of the cyclone Fani.
"Resumption of flights will be with positive clearance from respective air traffic control," the aviation watchdog said in the advisory.
Extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani made landfall on the eastern coast wreaking havoc in Odisha on Friday. Despite extensive damage caused by near 200 kmph winds and heavy to very heavy rainfall.
Damaging houses, thousands of trees and electricity poles, uprooting trees, the eye of Fani almost 25 km in diametre is sending off wind velocity of 150 to 175 kmph and even above at some places touching 180 or more, said the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
Fani is the most severe cyclonic storm since the super cyclone of 1999 that claimed close to 10,000 lives and left a trail of destruction in vast swathes of Odisha, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JWTC).
India Meteorological Department (IMD) sources said it is also the first cyclonic storm of such severity to have formed in April in India's oceanic neighbourhood in 43 years.
PTI