As cyclone Tauktae continued its relentless march towards the coast of Gujarat, where it is expected to make a landfall by Monday night, major airports in the state shutdown operations till Tuesday as a precautionary measure.
Barring the Rajkot airport, which will remain shut for flights till May 19, other three major airports - Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara - will remain closed for both domestic and international flights till Tuesday, officials said.
The Ahmedabad airport, which suspended its operations on Monday evening, will resume flights after 5 am on Tuesday.
"The Ahmedabad airport is fully prepared for cyclone Tauktae, and as a precautionary measure our operations will remain suspended from 19:30 hrs, 17th May to 05:00 hrs, 18th May 2021," the airport said in a statement.
Both Vadodara and Surat airports suspended take off and landing of flights at 11 am on Monday and will resume operations at 1 pm on Tuesday, the officials said.
The Rajkot airport has announced that its operations, which came to a halt at 4 pm on Monday, will remain suspended till 11:15 hours on May 19.
As per the latest forecast of the IMD, Tauktae, which has now intensified into an "extremely severe cyclonic storm", is likely to cross the Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Mahuva (Bhavnagar district), around 20 km east of Union territory of Diu between 8 pm and 11 pm on Monday with maximum sustained wind speed of 155-165 kmph.