Chandigarh, December 22
A thick blanket of fog accompanied by a numbing cold which has been enveloping the entire northern region for the past few days, seemed to intensify today disrupting air, rail and road traffic and throwing normal life out of gear.
Chandigarh as also most areas in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir remained shrouded in dense fog for most part of the day today. Udhampur, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sonepat, Sirsa, and Hisar were among the worst hit by fog.
Amritsar was the coldest place in the plains after mercury in the city dropped to a chilling 1.5 degrees C, four degrees below normal. In the hills, Srinagar city reeled under the impact of intense chill, recording a low of four degrees below freezing point.
The cold wave and fog has already claimed over 30 lives while many people have been injured in road accidents in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh since the onset of winter last month. One person died and three others including a child were seriously injured in a collision between two trucks due to poor visibility on the Sher Shah Suri Marg near Karnal today.
The Indian Airlines and Jet Airways flights from Mumbai-Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Chandigarh, respectively, were cancelled again today due to poor visibility. IA officials here were not sure whether flights would be resumed tomorrow.
Rail services in the region were again badly hit today with most of the trains running behind schedule by two to five hours. Vehicular traffic moved at a snail’s pace with headlights on till around 1130 hours. After a couple of hours of weak sunshine, fog began descending again over the region in the afternoon. Haryana Roadways suspended its
Chandigarh-Hisar bus service due to foggy conditions.
Amritsar recorded a minimum temperature of 1.5
degrees C, followed by Ludhiana (5.9°C) and Patiala (7.7°C). Chandigarh today saw the minimum dipping to 7.4 C while the day temperatured hovered around 15°C. In Haryana, Ambala (7.6°C), Hisar (6.1°C) and the national capital territory of Delhi (9.4°C) were among the colder places in the region.
According to reports from Delhi, air traffic at the Delhi airport came to a standstill for almost 12 hours since last night due to fog. The Runway Visibility Range (RVR) was reduced to a mere 100 metre at 9 p.m. last night.
Both Indian Airlines and Jet Airways announced cancellation of their flights from Delhi to Chandigarh, where the mercury
dipped to 7.4 degree Celsius. Though the night temperature was 9.4 degree Celsius, one degree above the normal, the northwesterly wind accompanied by moisture from Punjab resulted in condensation thus causing
fog. Road traffic was also hampered because of poor visibility, which went below 400 metres.
According to the weather bureau, cold day conditions are prevailing in west Uttar Pradesh and some parts of adjoining east Uttar Pradesh and Haryana where day temperatures hovered around 16 degrees Celsius.
A western disturbance as an upper air system lies over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir. It is likely to move eastwards and affect western Himalayas.
Snowfall in the hills of the north-western parts of the country together with westerly winds have brought Uttar Pradesh under the influence of a severe cold wave, claiming nine lives and adversely affecting rail, road and air traffic.
Officials confirmed that nine people had died in the past 24 hours, five in Mahoba, two in Hardoi and one each in Chandauli and Gorakhpur.
The police said a roadways bus and a tractor trolley collided head-on in Moradabad due to the dense fog this morning. Twelve people sustained injuries in the accident.
According to Amausi airport authorities, two New Delhi-bound flights from Lucknow were cancelled today due to smog. The IA Sharjah-Lucknow and some other flights were delayed by several hours due to thick fog.
Several trains were also running hours behind schedule, including Farakkha Express which was running 16 hours late, Shaheed Express 15 hours, Duplicate Punjab Mail and Benaras-Bareilly passenger six hours and Sialdah Express four hours.
