Chandigarh, December 24
Normal life, including rail, road and air traffic was disrupted in Chandigarh and most parts of Punjab and Haryana due to a thick blanket of fog in the region.

While Indian Airlines and Jet Airways were forced to cancel their Mumbai-Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Chandigarh flights respectively, due to poor visibility, a majority of trains in the region were also running behind schedule due to restriction on speed due to foggy weather conditions.

The Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi Express, the Nizamudin-Kalka Himalayan Queen, the Lucknow-Chandigarh Sadhbavna Express and the Bhiwani-Kalka Ekta Express were running late by one and a half to three hours.

In Hisar, severe cold wave and thick fog in the region has forced the authorities to close all government and private schools in the district. The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Deepti Umashankar , issued an order to close schools in the district from tomorrow to January 11.

It would not be the traditional white Christmas at Shimla tomorrow as weathermen have ruled out any snowfall in and around the capital town of Himachal Pradesh for another 48 hours. A large number of tourists have descended on Shimla in anticipation of a snowfall. However, the tribal belt in Himachal Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Jammu and Kashmir reported mild snowfall in the past 24 hours. Besides, higher reaches of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur and Bharmaur (Chamba) also reported spells of light snowfall.

According to a report from Sonepat, a number of daily commuters travelling between Panipat, Sonepat and Delhi were stranded at various railway stations in the region due to late running of express and suburban trains on the Delhi-Kalka, Amritsar and Jammu sections. The trains running late included Barauni Express (five hours), Jammu Mail (three hours), Delhi-bound Shaheed Express (19 hours), Amritsar-bound Shaheed Express (23 hours), Jhelum express, Bhatinda inter-city and Amritsar Super Express.

Two trains, Superfast and Flying Mail were cancelled at Amritsar while four trains reported delay of up to eight hours.

Vehicular traffic on the national and state highways was disrupted by the fog with vehicles forced to ply at a slow speed with headlamps on.

In Chandigarh, the residents woke up to a foggy morning. However, a weak sun began peeping through around noon. But towards evening, clouds of fog began rolling in once again seriously affecting visibility.

Chandigarhians braved icy winds and two to seven degrees below normal temperatures, with the minimum dipping to 5 degrees C while the maximum hovered at 14.8 degrees C.

The lowest temperature in the plains of Punjab and Haryana was recorded at Amritsar where it touched just 1 degree C. At other places, the night temperature was Ambala (5.5° C), Bhuntar (4.9° C), Hisar (5.1° C), Jammu (5.4° C), Ludhiana (5.4° C), Patiala (6.3°C Shimla (2.1° C), Srinagar (1.7° C) and Sundernagar (2.6°C).

According to a Delhi report, poor visibility caused by dense fog prevented President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s helicopter from landing at Saifai in UP’s Etawah district, where he was scheduled to inaugurate a festival.

NEW DELHI (UNI): The flight carrying Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Lucknow to Delhi was diverted to Jaipur due to heavy fog here this evening, an airport official said.