Fearing the onslaught of cyclone “Fani”, no flights will depart or arrive at Kolkata airport from 3 pm on Friday to 8 am on Saturday.
Monitoring the progress of cyclone “Fani”, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered the shutdown of flight operations at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
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Initially, it was decided that there would be no flights to and from Kolkata airport between 9.30 pm on Friday and 6 pm on Saturday. The shutdown time was rescheduled after the extremely severe cyclone “Fani” lashed the Odisha coast on Friday morning.
Also Read – 5 things to know about cyclonic storm “Fani”
The DGCA and the Airport Authority of India officials are worried with the progress of extremely severe cyclone “Fani”. The officials are more worried because the wind speed is 175 km/hour and could touch 275 km/hour making it a category 4 storm.
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Closure of Kolkata airport badly affected air traffic in the eight states in northeast India. All the states in the region have multiple direct flights to Kolkata daily.
The DGCA also cancelled all flights to and from Bhubaneswar airport on Friday. Services in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar airports would resome only after air-traffic control issues a clearance.
Also Read – Cyclone Fani: 81 trains including 3 in Assam cancelled
According to reports more than 220 trains on the Kolkata-Chennai route have been cancelled till Saturday. Nine trains have been diverted and four have been short terminated.