Dense fog impacts visibility in north west India, trains delayed

An orange alert was issued by the Met department across many places as visibility remained around 50 m.

New Delhi: A thick blanket of fog wrapped up the north west India from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday bringing down the visibility to “zero” in many places and disrupting the flight and train schedules even as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned about “dense to very dense fog” in the same region in the next three-four days.

The visibility was nil at Bhatinda in Punjab; Agra and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh in the morning, while at many other locations including Palam airport in Delhi the visibility was only 25 m adversely affecting commercial flights.

"Dense to very dense fog is likely to continue over north west India during next 3-4 days followed by the likely occurrence of a light isolated rainfall over north west and central India between December 31 and January 2," an IMD official said.

The situation began to worsen once again in the afternoon as visibility at Amritsar dropped to zero at 4.30 pm and visibility at Palam airport declined sharply to 300 m at 6.30 pm. It is likely to fall further and become close to 100 m by late evening, possibly interrupting the flights once again.

In the morning busy cities with 25 m visibility include Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Hissar, Bhiwani, Karnal, Sirsa, Srinagar and Ganganagar.

There are many other places including Safderjung in central Delhi where the visibility fell down to 50 m. “I had to reach my school by 8 am. But barely anything was visible on the highway as I was travelling,” said S Srivastava, a high-school teacher who lives in Noida, but commutes to east Delhi daily.

“Even by the afternoon, the fog hasn't dissipated completely.” The season’s first big pile-up involving 12 cars took place on the Noida-Agra Taj expressway injuring many.

At least half a dozen people were killed in various parts of Uttar Pradesh in accidents related to visibility. An IMD official said meteorological conditions required to lift the fog like winds from the north or a Western Disturbance would not be there at least till December 29 and sunlight alone would be insufficient to lift the veil of fog contaminated with pollution.

About 25 trains scheduled for arrival at Delhi railway stations were late on arrival by one hour to five hours due to fog, said a Northern Railway official. The Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express and the Howrah-New Delhi Poorvanchal Express were late by over five hours.

During winters, trains are run at reduced speeds to avoid any mishaps. The Railways deployed close to 20,000 Fog PASS devices for smooth train runs in various zones. The Fog PASS - GPS-based navigation devices - help loco pilots operate trains with minimal disruptions and delay while ensuring safety of passengers.