Cyclone Nisarga weakens; Mumbai spared

New Delhi, June 03: Coronavirus-hit Mumbai escaped the worst of the tropical storm, as severe cyclonic storm Nisarga, which made landfall on the Maharashtra coast near Alibag at around 1 pm is expected to weaken into a cyclone in a few hours.

Nisarga, the second to strike India in two weeks blew in from the Arabian Sea, making landfall at the coastal town Alibag at around 12.30 pm, the process of which finished by 4 pm.

The intensity of the cyclone is likely to weaken by midnight, and will be subsiding completely by Thursday morning.

The process of landfall, which began at 12.30 PM at Alibag, had completed by 2.30 PM, IMD director general Mrutunjay Mohapatra said. By 4 PM, the cyclone had started weakening with wind speeds of 90-100 kilometres per hour.

The current wind speed of the storm has also reduced to 65-75 kilometres per hour, the IMD said in a bulletin at 6.30 PM. The cyclone will further weaken into a deep depression by late night, the IMD bulletin said.

Although the cyclone made the landfall just 95 kilometres from Mumbai, the metropolitan city largely escaped its wrath.

Thousands of people had been evacuated in coastal Maharashtra and south Gujarat, trains rescheduled, flights cancelled and fishermen ordered out of the seas as the region braced for the cyclone.