The South 24-Parganas district administration on Friday began evacuating people to disaster shelters in preparation of fresh spells of rain accompanied by squall that are slated to begin on Saturday afternoon.

In East Midnapore, officials have issued three days of “strict alert”, with restrictive measures extending to fishermen and tourists.

Met department sources said there might be winds exceeding 45kmph starting Saturday along with heavy rain.

The weather office in Calcutta has advised fishermen not to venture into deep sea areas of the north Bay of Bengal from adjoining central Bay of Bengal on September 25 and 26 as well as on the Odisha coast and adjoining areas of west-central Bay of Bengal.

It has also been advised that those who are in deep sea should return to the coast by Friday night to avoid any danger. “Our primary objective is to save people,” said district magistrate P.Ulaganathan.

On Thursday, the district administration held a meeting at the Kakdwip subdivisional office to discuss disaster management measures. “An integrated command for disaster management has been set up comprising all stakeholders in the district in addition to a round-the-clock control room at the district, subdivision, and block headquarters,” the DM added.

Officials in the coastal districts began making announcements over loudspeaker from Friday. Officials of the state fisheries department were seen visiting fishing harbours and interacting with fishermen’s organisations to ensure that those in the sea returned early and none ventured for fishing.

Additional director of fisheries (marine) South 24-Parganas, Jayanta Pradhan said: “We are taking no risk. We have over 13,000 registered fishing boats, of which 1,000 are in the sea now. We have requested the fishermen’s association to call them back.”

His counterpart in East Midnapore, Surajit Bag, added: “We have taken extensive public announcement measures at harbours to alert fishermen so that they don’t dare to venture out into the sea.”

According to instructions communicated from Nabanna, the district administration has already started imparting special training to relief workers at the grass roots and has arranged for adequate tarpaulins and relief materials ready at different strategic locations.

“Our efforts would be to reach the victims in the shortest possible time. To make this possible, volunteers have been deployed and relief workers kept alert,” an official said.

At the same time, power utilities, public health engineering and PWD authorities have been asked to keep their quick response teams ready for any emergency situation.

Public health engineering authorities have been asked to send water pouches to blocks, along with PVC tanks, for storing drinking water in vulnerable spots.

“District authorities were also asked to keep medical teams and shelters ready to accommodate evacuated people. Making arrangements for gruel kitchens has also been advised apart from alerting people to the possibility of snapped electric wires,” an official in Nabanna said.