Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cut short her “fruitful visit” to london and rushed back to Kolkata on Thursday following MeT reports that Cyclone Komen and heavy rain was to lash Bengal Thursday onwards.The weather office had sounded high alert in most of the South Bengal districts, particularly, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Burdwan and Murshidabad. In 2009 Cyclone Aila had wrecked havoc in the State uprooting several lakh people in coastal areas of Sundrebans and East Midnapore districts. The cyclonic storm was to hit Bengal from Bangladesh on Thursday evening. “After landfall it will move west and weaken gradually” the weather reports said adding the wind speed could reach up to 80 kmph.
The Banerjee then the Railway Minister who had personally toured extensively the Sunderbans during Aila held an emergency meeting at the NSI Airport itself taking stock of the pre-storm preparedness, sources said. Earlier, the Government sources said that the CM had a fruitful trip of london where 22 MoUs were signed and a proposal from industrialist Swaraj Paul’s side came to set up a sports car factory in Bengal.
