Ahmedabad, June 12: Flight operations will be suspended from today midnight at airports in Porbandar, Diu, Bhavnagar, Keshod and Kandla as Cyclone Vayu is expected to make landfall tomorrow. The cyclone is expected to hit the Gujarat coast in the early hours of Thursday, as per the weather department's alert.

"In order to minimize damage to the airport infrastructure & avoid inconvenience to passengers, we've decided to suspend flight operations at airports in Porbandar, Diu, Bhavnagar, Keshod & Kandla from today midnight till tomorrow midnight," said the statement issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Cyclone Vayu: Odisha offers help to Gujarat As 'Very Severe Cyclonic Storm' Will Make Landfall on Thursday

As Gujarat and Diu are braving to face "very severe" cyclone Vayu, Home Minister Amit Shah Wednesday said authorities have evacuated about 3.1 lakh people living in the low-lying areas and the NDRF has pre-positioned 52 teams for rescue and relief operations.

Shah also said the Indian Coast Guard, Navy, Army and the Air Force units have also been put on standby while aircraft and helicopters are carrying out aerial surveillance.

"Gujarat has evacuated about 3 lakh people and Diu has evacuated over 10,000 people from low-lying areas to safer places...(the) MHA is in continuous touch with state govts/UT and central agencies. The NDRF has pre-positioned 52 teams equipped with boats, tree-cutters, telecom equipments etc," the Home Minister said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 12, 2019 09:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).