Gajapati Collector and district magistrate Lingaraj Panda has cancelled the holidays and leave of the government staff for September 25 and 26. He also asked the staff not to leave their headquarters without prior permission, they added.
Meanwhile the District Collector, SP and other senior officials visited and supervised the low lying areas of Paralakhemundi Municipality including Satsang Vihar, Mahendra Nagar, Kamakshi Nagar and Sridhar Nagar and took stock of the preparedness for the anticipated cyclone.
Notably, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal, which intensified as a deep depression on Saturday, will turn into a cyclone by Sunday evening.
Cyclone Gulab is likely to cross north Andhra Pradesh and its adjacent south Odisha in the next 12 hours, the IMD said.
The IMD has issued a yellow alert for area around Kalingapatnam - Vishakhapatnam and Gopalpur - from where the cyclone is expected to cross. The wind speed is expected to be 70 to 80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph in the area, IMD predicted.
