Alert has been issued to residents of Orissa coast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a severe cyclonic storm took shape over south-east Bay of Bengal.

The Orissa state government has asked residents of all coastal districts to remain alert. And the Union Home Ministry has issued an alert to residents of the Andaman and Nicobar islands for the next two days.

The storm, moving at a speed of 70 to 80 miles per hour lay over the southeast bay about 300 kilometers west of Port Blair on Tuesday.

Fishermen of the islands have been warned not to venture into the sea over Wednesday and Thursday.

The Cyclone Warning Centre (CWC) in Bhubaneswar said the storm has intensified into a “very severe” cyclonic storm after midnight of Monday-Tuesday and was about 850 km away from Paradip on Tuesday. The CWC in a statement said the “system is likely to intensify further and move in a north-western direction.”

In Orissa, the state government issued alert to the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Ganjam. State government officials said it was only ‘an alert’ and not a ‘warning’.

The CWC said the system is likely to intensify further and move in the north-north-western direction, it said. However the CWC officials have refused to speculate if the cyclone could hit Orissa or Andaman and Nicobar islands, and by what time the storm could reach the shores.

The state government was preparing cyclone shelters and educational institutions along the coast to meet any eventuality, state government officials said.