Bhubaneswar, October 10: The cyclonic storm ‘Titli’ is likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm in next 12 hours, informed the Regional Meteorological Centre here today.

“Cyclonic storm ‘Titli’ lay centred at westcentral Bay of Bengal about 410 km south-southeast of Gopalpur and 340 km southeast of Kalingapatnam and is likely to intensity further into a severe cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours,” said the latest bulletin issued by the IMD.

“It is very likely to move northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coasts between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around morning of October 11,” added IMD.

The wind speed is likely to increase gradually becoming 100-110 kmph gusting to 125 kmph from this evening along and off south Odisha coast and 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph along and off north Odisha coast.

The state government has announced closure of schools, colleges and Anganwadi centres in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts from today.

“Six teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been sent to Gajapati, Puri, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts and seven Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) units have been deployed in Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Kalahandi districts,” informed Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi.

Besides, the SRC has asked the Collectors of affected districts to ensure that 836 numbers of multi-purpose shelters are kept ready to accommodate maximum people and directed the officials to evacuate people in the risk zones if the situation demands.

Meanwhile, the IMD has issued red alert and predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at few places with isolated extremely heavy rainfall over Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts in the next 24 hours.

Besides, orange warning and heavy to very heavy rainfall alert has been issued at isolated places in Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Balasore districts till the morning of October 11.