Monsoon clouds gather over the Bhubaneswar sky on Monday evening. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, June 13: Monsoon arrived in Orissa today coinciding with Raja, the festival that celebrates womanhood.

The meteorological office here said that the south-west monsoon had hit parts of Gajpati, Ganjam and Puri districts and was expected to advance further in the next two to three days. “Conditions are favourable for further advancement of the south-west monsoon into remaining parts of Orissa in the next two to three days,” said the weatherman, adding that a low-pressure system was likely to form in the Bay of Bengal triggering widespread rains.

“In the next few days, the monsoon would be all over Orissa,” said Dr. S.C. Sahu, director in-charge of the Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre. Though not willing to hazard a guess at this stage, the expert still hoped that the monsoon would be active enough this time to meet the rainfall requirements of Orissa.

The met department’s monsoon announcement was greeted with rains in the capital city where the mood has turned festive in view of Raja. However, the evening showers acted as a dampener for those planning to shop for the festival. “I was just thinking of going out when it started raining. Though the weather has become cool much to our relief, we can’t shop in this weather,” said Lalita Sahu, a homemaker. There was bad news from Keonjhar district where two persons were reported killed when lightning struck the Kadasahi mines in the Barbil area. Three others were injured in the incident.

The weather experts said the likely formation of the low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal would be eagerly awaited as the bulk of Orissa’s annual rainfall is almost always on account of such systems. “In fact, the frequent occurrence of these systems in the sea is an indication of healthy monsoon. The rains are good when we have more of these systems and vice-versa,” said an expert.

While farmers have been eagerly awaiting outbreak of the monsoon crucial for farming operations, even those remotely connected with agriculture appear to be happy with the arrival of rains which would hopefully put an end to the long spell of sweltering heat. Till a few weeks ago, the mercury had been shooting alarmingly in several parts of Orissa making life miserable for the people. This was particularly true of the Angul-Talcher industrial belt with greenhouse gases playing their role in raising the temperature.