Fani: Over 200 flights, trains cancelled; Kolkata Airport to remain shut

With Odisha and West Bengal's weather conditions deteriorating rapidly due to the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani, more than 220 trains that pass along the Odisha coastline on the Kolkata-Chennai route have been cancelled, which include 140 Mail and Express trains and 83 passenger trains.

On the other hand, all flights from Bhubaneswar have also been cancelled from midnight. Simultaneously, Kolkata airport will be shut between 9.30 pm on Friday to till 6 pm on Saturday with more than 200 flights from Kolkata cancelled.

It is noteworthy that Cyclone Fani is the strongest cyclonic storm since the Super Cyclone of 1999 which devastated the state on a massive scale, said the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre.

Also, the Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that it is the first cyclonic storm of such severity in April in India's oceanic neighbourhood in 43 years.

Reportedly, the name "Fani", which is pronounced as "Foni", had been suggested by Bangladesh which roughly translates to the hood of a snake.