Hundreds of passengers going to Mumbai were left stranded at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Monday, as several flights were either delayed or cancelled due to cyclone Vayu.
Some flights were diverted to Surat and Vadodara airports due to heavy rainfall and resulting low visibility at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.
Vistara flight UK 866 and SpiceJet flight SG 456 between Bengaluru and Mumbai were diverted. AirAsia I5*334 and I5*306, Indigo flights 6E 6794 and 6E 566, Vistara flight UK*854 and Go Air flight G8 526, were among the flights cancelled, said a Times of India report.
Flights from Bengaluru to Pune, Goa and Ahmedabad were also disrupted.
Meanwhile media reports said that flight schedules between the UAE and India were unaffected until Tuesday.
The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday issued detailed advisories to Gujarat and the Union Territory of Diu, requesting them to take all precautionary measures to ensure that no human life is lost in view of cyclone Vayu which is likely to hit Gujarat on Thursday.
According to private weather forecasting agency Skymet, the cyclone has turned into a very severe cyclone at 8:30 am on Wednesday. It will make landfall on the coast of Gujarat shortly with the areas of Kutch, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Porbandar, Rajkot, Junagarh, Diu, Gir Somnath, Amreli and Bhavnagar likely to be affected.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in its last bulletin on Tuesday said cyclone Vayu is very likely to intensify further into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm by 2:30 am. “It is very likely to move nearly northwards and cross Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Mahuva around Veraval and Diu region as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm with wind speed 140-150 kmph gusting to 165 kmph during early Wednesday morning,” the IMD bulletin said.
More than 3 lakh people have been evacuated in Gujarat after a red alert was issued by the Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre.
