NEW DELHI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani made landfall in India's eastern state of Odisha on Friday, officials said.
The landfall process started at 8:00 a.m. local time near Puri town, 68 km off Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha.
"Extremely severe cyclone Fani landfall started today at 8:00 a.m. local time and some of the portion of the eye has already entered land area close to Puri," an official at Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said. "It'll take two more hours until 10:30 a.m. local time to complete landfall process."
Authorities have evacuated over 1.1 million people and shifted them to temporary shelters in camps on higher grounds.
At least 14 districts in Odisha are in the path of Cyclone Fani.
"People have been evacuated from Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Naygarh, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar which are expected to be badly impacted by the storm," an official said. "About 5,000 kitchens have started operating to serve people in the shelters set up for evacuated people."
Strong winds were witnessed in Bhubaneswar, parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal as well.
Officials said sea conditions were very likely to be phenomenal over northwest and adjoining west central Bay of Bengal, off north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coast during next six hours and high to very high for subsequent 24 hours.
Fishermen have been advised not to venture into these areas.
The army, navy, air force, coast guard and disaster management agencies have been kept on stand-by to meet any eventuality.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed preparedness for Cyclone Fani with his senior officials on Thursday.
All flights from Bhubaneswar have been cancelled from midnight. Media reports said Kolkata airport in West Bengal will be shut between 9:30 p.m. local time on Friday until 6:00 p.m. local time on Saturday.
