By IANS,
New Delhi: Dense fog enveloped the capital Friday morning, wreaking havoc on commuters as many trains and flights were cancelled or delayed while vehicles moved at a snail’s pace.
The visibility in the city dropped to “less than 50 metres” at 8:30 a.m., said an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to the Northern Railway website at 9:30 a.m., 28 trains were running late by more than two hours while 40 were cancelled due to fog.
As per the website of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), 66 flights were delayed and 21 were cancelled till 11:30 a.m.
Airport officials, however, said fog was not the only reason behind the delays and cancellations as bad weather at destination airports and operational and technical reasons were also to be blamed.
“My early morning train to Ahmedabad has been cancelled and I will miss my cousin’s wedding. It’s frustrating how we continue to suffer year after year from the same problem of fog. Can’t we have a better technology in place,” complained 32-year-old Arun Vadala, a businessman.
The situation was no better on city roads as traffic crawled in several areas with the fog hitting hard office-goers and school-going students.
“I was to reach Gurgaon at 9 a.m. to meet a client but due to dense fog I was stuck on the Mahipalpur road for long,” said Anshuman Singh, a sales executive with an ad agency.
Friday’s minimum temperature dropped three notches below average at 4.5 degrees Celsius.
However, the met office has forecast that the day ahead would be clear and pleasant.
“The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 18 degrees,” said an IMD official.