New Delhi, January 1
Plains of North India came under the veil of thick fog on the first day of the New Year, adversely affecting rail, road and air traffic in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. In the NCR region, fog returned after a day’s break, badly affecting air and rail traffic with flights being cancelled and delayed and trains behind schedule.
In Delhi, around 40 outgoing domestic flights and 15 incoming ones were delayed. Airport sources said 11 international flights arriving and 10 departing were also delayed. Five were diverted. Several trains approaching the national capital were running several hours late, with some behind schedule by up to 20 hours.
In Punjab, a passenger train derailed at Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district due to poor visibility. While no casualty was reported in the derailment, reports suggested that the incident happened when due to thick fog the driver failed to change the track, resulting in a collision at the dead end.
Northern India has been reeling under biting cold conditions and dense fog for the past few days with Punjab and Haryana being the worst hit. There has been no respite from cold also and past few days have been registering mercury 1 to 3 degrees below normal at most places in the region, with Amritsar being the coldest. As far as Thursday in specific is concerned, IMD director SC Bhan
said fog prevailed over Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, extending till Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
“Current meteorological analysis suggests that shallow fog conditions are likely to prevail over plains of north-west and adjoining east India mainly in morning hours during the next two days,” he added.
But the good news is a fresh western disturbance and its induced upper air cyclonic circulation is likely to affect Western Himalayan region and adjoining plains of north India on January 3 and 4. Due to this, rise in night as well as day temperatures is likely over plains of north-west India in this period.
Bhan says after January 6, minimum temperatures are likely to fall over plains of north-west India, but the fall is not expected to be drastic as the western disturbance of January 3 is likely to be followed by another western disturbance that will not allow temperatures to go down sharply.
However, today’s fog conditions brought flight operations at the IGIA almost to a standstill with the general visibility falling below 50 metres and runway visibility range dipping to 125 metres, lower than the required minimum of 150 metres for the planes to take off.
Operations at the Raja Sansi Airport in Amritsar have been badly affected due to poor visibility, which also remained poor in other parts, including Pathankot, Amritsar, Sirsa, Halwara, Bathinda, Ambala and Rohtak.
