Cyclone Nisarga: Uddhav Thackeray holds meeting with Home Minister Shah

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Union Home Minister Amit Shah discussed on Monday the state's preparedness for Cyclone Nisarga, which is predicted to hit the west coast on June 3.

Thackeray, in the meeting held through video conferencing, said Mumbai city, its suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg are on alert for the cyclone.

The state's disaster management, relief, and rehabilitation department is fully prepared to deal with the cyclone.

Fishermen have been called in from the sea and the coast guard has been notified, the slum dwellers in the Mumbai metropolitan area, especially in the low-lying areas, have also been instructed to evacuate.

10 units of the NDRF have been deployed for rescue operations while six SDRF units have been kept on standby.

Meanwhile, at 9 pm on Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said that the well-marked low-pressure area over South-East and adjoining East-Central Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area concentrated into a depression and it is very likely to intensify into a deep depression during next 12 hours and intensify further into a cyclonic storm over the East-Central Arabian Sea during the subsequent 24 hours.

"The depression lays about 310km southwest of Panjim, 570km south-southwest of Mumbai, 800 km south-southwest of Surat. It will cross Harihareshwar (Maharashtra) and Daman coast on the evening of June 3," IMD said.