Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat and Diu on today to personally review the situation there and the damage wrought by cyclone Tauktae. PM Modi will leave New Delhi around 9:30 am and land at Bhavnagar, from where he will proceed for an aerial survey of Una, Diu, Jafarabad, and Mahuva. He will also hold a review meeting at Ahmedabad.
Cyclone Tauktae weakened into a "depression" and lay centred over south Rajasthan and adjoining Gujarat region on Wednesday morning, the India Meteorological Department said. After causing widespread rain in Gujarat, the cyclone is expected to bring showers in many other states also, including Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, due to its interaction with the western disturbance, the IMD said.
At least seven people were killed in Gujarat as the cyclone battered parts of the state and left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles and trees, and damaging several houses and roads, officials said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that despite such a high-intensity cyclone hitting the state, his government managed to prevent any major loss to life or property as over two lakh people were already shifted to safer places.