By IANS,
New Delhi: Tuesday may have been relatively warmer than the past few days, but fog continued to affect air and rail traffic to and from the national capital, disrupting services of 124 trains and at least 38 domestic and international flights, officials said.
Although the fog had badly affected visibility during the past week, on Tuesday the visibility improved by noon.
“Low visibility procedures were used till 11 a.m. The fog mainly affected traffic at night. Since 11 p.m. (Monday), two flights were diverted to Ahmedabad and Bombay. At least 13 flights which includes both domestic and international have been cancelled while 25 were rescheduled,” an Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport official said.
The fog continued to wreak havoc on the railway schedule as well.
According to a Northern Railways spokesperson, 27 trains were rescheduled, 63 delayed and 34 cancelled because of the fog and poor visibility till late Tuesday.
“Among the trains which have been rescheduled are the Northeast Express and the Poorva Express. Sixty-three trains, which include the Jhelum Express, Mangla Express and the Rajdhani Express, are running late by around five hours and 34 trains like the Taj Express have been cancelled,” a Northern Railways spokesperson told IANS.
An official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said: “As a result of the fog, the general visibility this morning at around 9 a.m. was 500 metres. It, however, improved to 1,200 metres later in the day”.
The minimum temperature was recorded at 8.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above average. The maximum was recorded a notch below average at 19.8 degrees Celsius.
“It will be yet another foggy morning on Wednesday. The minimum and maximum temperatures will hover around 6 and 21 degrees, respectively,” the IMD official added.