Thick Delhi fog grounds flights

Train operations in N India badly hit too

Delhi on Monday was cold and hazy as fog descended over the city. Mercury dropped to sub-normal levels, recording a minimum temperature of 6.1 degree Celsius, which was a degree below Sunday.

About 49 flights, including those to foreign destinations, had to be either cancelled or diverted, while 55 trains in north India were running late.



The Airport Authority of India said 23 domestic and three international flights — both oncoming and departing — had to be cancelled.

Application of Low Visibility Procedures (LVP) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, implemented when visibility drops below 50 metres, also resulted in diversion of 16 domestic and seven international flights.

AAI officials said the LVP was in force from 8.36 pm on Sunday night till 10.36 am Monday morning. Despite poor visibility, 257 flights were operated from the airport, they said. The DGCA on Sunday imposed restrictions on flights not equipped to land in runway visibility levels as low as 50 metres. “No aircraft which is non-compliant with CAT-IIIB will be coming to Delhi during low visibility conditions,” Civil Aviation Secretary Naseem Zaidi said.

Officials say the technologically superior ILS CAT-IIIB allows compliant aircraft and trained pilots to land in visibility at just 50 mtrs. Flights to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Mumbai were badly affected by fog.

Among the 55 trains running late were some important east-bound ones like Purshottam Express, Poorva Express, Farakka Express and Sealdah and Howrah  Rajdhanis. They were mainly headed to destinations in Bihar, Bengal and Orisa.

Railways also rescheduled five trains due to the low visibility on the track. These include Bhopal Shatabdi, Amritsar Shatabdi, Seemanchal Express and Taj Express. Besides bad weather, the on-going Gujjar agitation also prompted the railways to cancel Rajasthan-bound trains like Kota Janshatabdi and Ajmer Shatabdi.

Exasperated passengers

The apparent lack of information and cooperation from the authorities about cancellation or rescheduling of  flights and trains left passengers agitated and exasperated.

“I tried calling the airport helpline number and even checked their website but there was no information on any flight being cancelled or delayed,” said a livid Sunil Kakkar, who was travelling to Jaipur.

A sea of passengers milled around the airport lounge and railway platforms for hours.