Heavy rains lash twin city; road, rail & air traffic affected

Bhubaneswar:  Thunderclouds hovered over the twin city of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on Wednesday morning bringing along heavy rains and lightening throwing normal life out of gear. Students and office-goers faced huge inconvenience while getting to their destinations as both road and rail traffic were affected.

“A cloud mass that had formed near Odisha-West Bengal border is moving towards the south triggering heavy rains in  Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.  It is likely to move towards Puri first and then to the Bay of Bengal," informed IMD Bhubaneswar Director, Sarat Chandra Sahu.

"I faced a lot of problem since auto-rickshaws and other public transports remained off the roads due to strong wind and lightning," said Sulagna, a student.

"I came to open my shop in the morning and got totally drenched. However, the rain has been a great respite from the scorching sun," said a businessman in Cuttack.

The Regional Meteorological Department here issued a thunderstorm warning for 15 districts across Odisha and advised people to remain alert between 7.30 am to 11.30 am today.

In their latest forecast, the weathermen said that thunderstorm accompanied with hail and gusty surface wind reaching a speed of 50 to 60 kmph is likely to occur in Dhenkanal, Angul, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Puri, Nayagarh, Boudh, Sonepur, Sundergarh and Jharsuguda districts.

In a related development, one person was injured after lightening struck his house at Jhanajhana village under Hatadihi block in Keonjhar district. The injured has been rushed to a nearby hospital.As per the weather office, monsoon would hit Odisha  in the second week of June.

Meanwhile, rail services from Bhubaneswar to Puri, Berhampur and Bhadrak were badly hit after electric wires snapped and signals stopped functioning due to the rains.

The Cuttack-Puri shuttle train was stopped midway after a CESU wire snapped near Lingaraj station. Passengers of the train waited for more than four hours for restoration of the services.The Angul-Puri Passenger train was stopped at Bhubaneswar station whereas both Tata-Kacheguda and Talcher-Puri trains were halted at Mancheswar.

While Bhadrak-Bhubaneswar Passenger was stopped at Barang, Puri-Cuttack was stopped at Retang, Palasa-Cuttack Passenger at Khurda and Secunderabad -Howrah Falaknuma Express at Tapanga. Similarly the Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar Express was stopped at Nirakarapur and the Puri- Santragachhi Passenger had to be halted at Delang.

The Puri-New Delhi Nandankanan Express is yet to depart from the Puri railway station, informed sources.Flight services to and fro Bhubaneswar Airport was also affected by the heavy rain and strong wind.The New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Vistara 785 flight was diverted to Kolkata due to bad weather, informed airport authorities.