Delhi: Dense fog disrupts flight operations, 22 trains delayed

New Delhi [India]: Dense fog and severe cold conditions continued to hamper flight and train movements to and from the national capital on Friday morning, causing inconvenience to passengers. 

The arrival of nearly two dozen passenger trains to Delhi was delayed by up to 6 hours or more, and several flights were also late due to fog and poor visibility conditions. 

As per the India Meteorological Department, the visibility was recorded as low as 50 metres at around 5.30 am on Friday in isolated regions. 

This included parts of Punjab, West Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Tripura, Uttarakhand, East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and East Rajasthan. 

However, as per IMD, the visibility at Delhi’s Palam airport improved from ‘zero’ at 4.30 am today to 50 metres at 5 am and further improved to 150 metres at 6.30 am. 

As on Friday at 5.30 am, very dense fog was observed in many parts of Punjab, in isolated parts of West Rajasthan, dense fog was observed in many parts of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and in isolated parts of East Rajasthan and Tripura. 

Also, moderate fog was observed in isolated parts of Uttarakhand, East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha on Friday morning. 

As many as 22 Delhi-bound trains are running behind schedule following the dense fog conditions in many parts of the country. 

According to Northern Railways, five trains namely, Khajaurao-Kurukshetra Express, Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express, Hyderabad-New Delhi Express, Rani Kamlapati-New Delhi Bhopal Express and Kamakhya-Delhi Junction are delayed by around 6-6.30 hours. 

At least seven trains are expected to arrive late by around 2-2.45 hours. 

This included Amritsar-Nanded Express, Rewa-Anand Vihar Express, Muzaffarpur-AnandVihar Express, Vasco-Nizamuddin Express, Amritsar-Mumbai Express, Jammutawi-Ajmer Pooja Express and Manikpur-Nizamuddin Express. 

A delay of around 45 minutes is expected on the arrival of the Chennai-New Delhi Express. In addition to these, as many as nine trains are running behind schedule of around 1-1.45 hours, the railways said. 

The long-distance trains namely Saharsa-New Delhi Vaishali Express, Bhagalpur-Anandvihar Express, Rajendranagar-New Delhi Express, Banaras-New Delhi Express, Ambedkarnagar-Katra, Chennai-New Delhi Express, Ferozpur-Mumbai Express, Bikaner-Delhi Sarai Rohilla Express and Islampur-New Delhi Magadh Express are among those delayed. 

The minimum temperatures in many parts of north India were recorded in the range of 3-6 degree Celsius while parts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, north Madhya Pradesh and Bihar saw a rise in minimum temperatures ranging between 7-10 degree Celsius on Friday morning. 

As per the IMD, no significant change in minimum temperatures is expected over Northwest India during the next 24 hours and a rise by about 2 degree Celsius is expected in the next seven days. 

Dense fog and low visibility affected several flight operations consecutively for the fifth day of the week. 

Several passengers complained of delayed arrival of flights at Delhi airport. 
“I have come from Dubai. My flight was delayed due to fog in Delhi,” a passenger at IGI airport said.