Cyclone Remal is expected to make landfall between West Bengal’s Sagar Island and Bangladesh’s Khepupara at midnight on Sunday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Remal was centered about 290 km south-southeast of Sagar Island and 300 km south-southwest of Khepupara, the IMD said in an update at 5:52 am on Sunday.

It will intensify into a “severe cyclonic storm” in the next six hours and cross between Bangladesh and adjoining Bengal coasts around midnight, the Met office said.

A storm surge of up to 1.5 meters is likely to inundate low-lying areas of coastal West Bengal and Bangladesh at the time of landfall of Cyclone Remal.

A red alert has been issued for the coastal districts of South and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal for Sunday and Monday, where extremely heavy rain is expected in some areas. 

An orange alert is also in place for Kolkata, Howrah, Nadia, and Purba Medinipur districts.

The weather office has advised fishermen not to venture into the sea in the north Bay of Bengal until the morning of Monday.

The Met Office has also warned of extremely heavy rainfall in north Odisha on Sunday and Monday. Parts of northeast India may also experience extremely heavy precipitation on Monday and Tuesday.

The Kolkata airport authorities will suspend flight operations from Sunday noon to Monday morning (9 am) in view of the possible impact of cyclone Renal.

As many as 394 flights, arrival and departure in both international and domestic sectors, would not operate to and from the airport during the flight suspension period, an Airports Authority of India (AAI) spokesperson told the news agency PTI.