Chennai

In its latest bulletin issued at 11.30 pm, the IMD said the landfall process of Nivar has started and the "Centre of cyclone to cross coast near Puducherry within next 3 hours with wind speed of 120-130 kmph gusting to 145 kmph."

The wall cloud bands in the forward sector are entering into land and the weather system is interacting with the land surface, it said.

On its Twitter handle, the IMD said, "Very severe cyclonic storm Nivar now lies about 50 km east-southeast of Cuddalore, about 40 km east southeast of Puducherry. Landfall process commence. Centre of cyclone to cross coast near Puducherry within next 3 hours."

In another tweet, the department said the landfall process continued.

Authorities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have taken a slew of measures to handle the situation arising out of the cyclonic storm, which has led to heavy rainfall in several regions.

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