Reuters

New Delhi, May 24: India's southwest monsoon has been progressing fast and is expected to hit the Kerala coast a few days ahead of the scheduled date of June 1, a top weather department official said on Tuesday.

"We will stick to our forecast of May 30, but it might come even on May 28 or 29," M Rajeevan, a senior official of the India Metereological Department told Reuters.

He said the monsoon advance was picking up and would not get delayed beyond May 30. The monsoon has already advanced towards the southeast Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Islands.

"It is difficult to give an exact date, it is a spontaneous process," Rajeevan said.

Earlier this month, the weather department predicted the monsoon would hit the Kerala coast two days ahead of schedule.

The annual June-September southwest monsoon is key to the economic health of India's $700-billion economy, with farming generating more than a fifth of gross domestic product.

With nearly two-thirds of the billion plus population earning income from agriculture, the timely arrival and even distribution of the annual rains play a major role in determining eventual demand in the wider economy.

The monsoon usually arrives over the commercial capital of Mumbai by June 10, and brings respite from the summer heat in the capital New Delhi by June 29. Most years it covers the entire country by July 15.

Weather officials in April forecast this year's rains at 93 percent of the long-term average, with a 22 per cent probability of being deficient.