As cyclone Amphan's nine-hour march through seven south Bengal districts left over 70 casualties and a trail of devastation on Wednesday, the Centre on Saturday mobilized 10 additional NDRF teams in the state for restoration work.
These National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are being sent on receipt of a written request from Principal Secretary (Disaster Management and Civil Defence), West Bengal government, the Home Ministry official said.
"Ten additional NDRF teams have been mobilized and are being rushed at the earliest from NDRF locations outside West Bengal. Teams are likely to reach Kolkata by late night today (Saturday)," the official added.
Presently 26 NDRF teams are deployed in cyclone affected areas of West Bengal for restoration work as hundreds of houses were destroyed and embankments were breached at many places due to the Amphan's march in the state, leaving scores of villages swimming in misery.
The additional deployment of 10 teams will bring the total deployment to 36 teams of NDRF across the six most affected districts of West Bengal by Amphan which fizzled out in Bangladesh on Thursday morning after leaving a trail of destruction across a wide swathe of West Bengal and Odisha. Roads and various public utilities worth hundreds of crores were damaged in West Bengal.
The NDRF teams evacuated over 7 lakh people 5 lakh from West Bengal and 2 lakh from Odisha before the cyclone made its landfall on Wednesday afternoon.
After wreaking havoc in West Bengal and Odisha, barreling in from the Bay of Bengal with wind speed of up to 185 kmph, Amphan, the most severe storm since the Odisha super cyclone of 1999, on Thursday weakened and lay centred over Bangladesh with a wind speed of 27 kmph.
West Bengal has informed the Centre that there were major damages to agriculture, power and telecommunication facilities in the cyclone-affected areas, while Odisha said that damages have been limited to mainly agriculture.
( With inputs from IANS )