PM Narendra Modi to visit Cyclone Hit Bengal, Odisha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Odisha and West Bengal on Friday to assess the impact of cyclonic storm Yaas which wreaked havoc in the two coastal states.

According to the officials, the Prime Minister will first visit Odisha's capital city Bhubaneswar, where he will hold a review meeting. From there, he will then proceed for an aerial survey in the affected areas – Balasore and Bhadrak and also West Bengal's Purba Medinipur

PM Modi will also participate in the review meeting in West Bengal. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Friday confirmed that she would be holding a review meeting with the Prime Minister over the cyclone-led devastation, during his visit to the state.

The meeting will be held at Kalaikunda in Paschim Medinipur district, she had said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also chaired a meeting on Thursday to review over the impact of the cyclone and advised officials to ensure that normal life of people is back on track at the earliest.

Even as power services have been restored in most affected areas, according to officials present in the meeting, damage due to inundation need to be assessed and fixed.

About 106 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed with 46 teams each in West Bengal and Odisha that rescued over 1,000 people and removed more than 2,500 trees or poles that had fallen and obstructed the roads, according to a release issued after the meeting.

Cyclone Yaas, the second cyclone in less than a week to batter the western coast of India, has left behind a trail of damage and destruction. According to experts, mass evacuations saved many lives, reported Hindustan Times.

Even though the cyclone did not make landfall with the intensity the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted, it still caused the sea to surge up to four metres, inundating coastal villages in Balasore and Bhadrak where it made landfall. Over 1 million people were evacuated from low-lying areas in the affected states.

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