NEW DELHI, Oct 27, (Xinhua): Red and Orange alerts were issued and schools shut for two days in most districts of India's southern state Andhra Pradesh, as cyclone "Montha" was expected to make landfall in the next 36 hours, confirmed official sources on Monday. Ahead of the cyclone's landfall, areas in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu would face heavy to very-heavy rains with strong wind speed of up to 100 kilometers per hour.

In a statement, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the deep depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal had intensified into a "cyclonic storm" on Oct. 26. It would further turn into a "severe cyclonic storm" by Oct. 28, and was likely to cross Andhra Pradesh's coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam areas during the night of Oct. 28 "as a severe cyclonic storm," added the IMD.

Media reports quoted Odisha's Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari as saying that the impending calamity would impact the state's 15 districts, eight of which were likely to experience very heavy rainfall and strong winds. The cyclone would also bring heavy rains in some districts of West Bengal between Oct. 28 and 31. The IMD advised fishermen not to venture into the sea waters along and off the West Bengal coast from Oct. 28 to 30.