Chennai, November 25: The "landfall process"of Cyclone Nivar had begun, said the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in a late night update issued on Wednesday. The weather department placed Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on the edge after the alert was issued. Use the live tracker map here to check realtime cyclonic storm movement. Cyclone Nivar Live Tracker Map on Windy: Check Realtime Status Here.

"Landfall process of severe cyclonic storm Nivar has started," S Balachandran of IMD's Chennai department was reported as saying at 10:56 pm news agency ANI. The completion of landfall process was expected in the next few hours, between 2 am post midnight to early hours of Thursday.

"Very severe cyclonic storm Nivar now lies about 50 km east-southeast of Cuddalore, about 40 km east southeast of Puducherry. Landfall process commences. Centre of Nivar Cyclone to cross coast near Puducherry within next 3 hours," the IMD was reported as saying in another update.

Update by ANI

The cyclone is expected to first hit the coast of northern Puducherry, before completing the landfall on the Tamil Nadu coastline. The cyclone was categorised as a "very severe cyclonic storm" by the IMD. The wind was gushing at around 130-145 kmph by the time this report was published.

The government in Tamil Nadu announced public holidays for tomorrow in 13 districts in view of the cyclone. Locals were urged to not to venture outside their homes. In Puducherry, Section 144 of the CrPC which bars the gathering of four or more persons in public will remain imposed till Thursday evening.

The Chennai airport closed down its operations for a 12-hour period, from 7 pm on Wednesday till 7 am on Thursday. The Chennai Metro was also shut down since the evening, where public bus services were also halted. The Southern Railway announced the cancellation of seven Chennai-bound trains for November 26.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 25, 2020 11:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).