By IANS
New Delhi : People of Delhi and the surrounding areas in the northern plains continued to struggle with cold and fog Thursday even as the chill spread to the western parts of the country.
Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 6.4 degrees Celsius, a drop of nearly two degrees Celsius from Wednesday. The Met Office had predicted a steady rise in the night temperatures in the city and most of the parts of northern plains.
The cold wave continued in the Gujarat, southwest Rajasthan, central Maharashtra and Marathawada. Mumbai recorded 13.2 degrees Celsius a day after the mercury dipped to its lowest in nearly four decades here.
The Met Office forecast that the cold wave would continue for the next 2-3 days till Sunday.
The extreme cold and frost have damaged crops and vegetables worth Rs.6.5 billion ($164.5 million) in Rajasthan, estimates the agriculture department.
The lowest minimum temperature in the plains was 3.0 degrees Celsius at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
The story was similar in the northern regions of the country that’s witnessing a severe cold wave.
In the Kashmir Valley several houses collapsed and normal life remained crippled Thursday as the season’s heaviest snowfall kept the Srinagar-Jammu national highway closed for the fourth consecutive day.
“Dozens of people have been injured in these house collapse incidents, but luckily no death has been reported from anywhere so far,” a senior police officer said here.
Due to heavy snowfall in the valley, many houses collapsed in Srinagar, Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Ganderbal districts.
The strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway remained closed for the fourth consecutive day Thursday as nearly nine feet of snow had accumulated at the Jawahar Tunnel area of the road.
“Some 1,200 vehicles are stranded at various safe places on the highway as heavy snowfall and landslides are hampering the road restoration efforts,” said an official of the traffic department.
The only road linking the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country in winter was closed Monday.
Snow, sleet and cold paralysed life in much of Himachal Pradesh also. State capital Shimla was a complete whitewash with nearly 16 cm of snowfall in the last 24 hours.
Sleet and strong winds lashed the resort town during much of the day, forcing people to remain indoors. The minimum temperature recorded in this city was zero degree Celsius.
Roads remained blocked on the Hindustan-Tibet highway as the ski resorts of Kufri and Narkanda received heavy snowfall this week.
The following are the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Thursday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall
(C) (C) (mm)
Delhi 20.5 (-2) 6.4 (-3) Nil
Mumbai 25.3 (-6) 13.7 (-2) Nil
Chennai 31.4 (+2) 23.6 (+3) Nil
Kolkata 28.1 (-1) 19.0 (+3) Nil
Ahmedabad 22.1 (-1) 7.0 (-7) Nil
Bangalore 30.2 (+1) 17.8 (+2) Nil
Bhopal 22.5 (-5) 8.6 (-3) Nil
Bhubaneswar 31.4 (+4) 17.8 (-1) Nil
Chandigarh 19.4 (-3) 9.0 (+1) Nil
Dehradun 18.4 (-3) 9.6 (+3) 14.1
Panaji 29.4 (-2) 17.8 (-2) Nil
Guwahati 26.6 (+1) 12.6 (+2) Nil
Hyderabad 29.4 (+1) 19.3 (+3) Nil
Jaipur 22.4 (-3) 7.0 (-3) Nil
Lucknow 24.4 (0) 13.0 (+5) 2.2
Nagpur 29.6 (-1) 18.0 (+4) Nil
Patna 24.4 (-1) 14.0 (+3) Nil
Pune 26.8 (-3) 10.8 (0) Nil
Srinagar 1.2 (-6) -1.2 (0) 37.6
Thiruvananthapuram 32.8 (+2) 24.1 (+2) Nil