Heavy fog over North India since morning has wreaked havoc for travellers across the country, disrupting both air and rail traffic in a big way. Dense fog enveloped the Indira Gandhi International Airport here this morning, leading to delay and diversion of over 70 flights. Fog started to descend on the airport around 8 PM last night and gradually became dense, forcing airport authorities to implement low visibility procedure (LVP).
Around 23 flights coming to the national capital had to be diverted to nearby airports due to the foggy conditions, an airport official said. The runway visibility hovered between 50 to 175 metres through the night, resulting in disruptions in flight operations. On Sunday, over 100 flights were affected when fog enveloped the airport. Over 40 flights, including 14 international ones, were diverted while 38 were cancelled. The emergency measures put in place by the government to counter fog delays proved ineffective and it is the same old story at most of the airports as passengers wait for hours for their flights. The dense fog cover has also disrupted train schedules.
Owing to low visibility, the railways rescheduled five trains including the Bhopal Shatabdi, Amritsar Shatabdi, Seemanchal Express and Taj Express. 55 trains are running late due to the foggy conditions, including Purshottam Express, Poorva Express, Farakka Express and Sealdha and Howraj Rajdhanis, railway officials sad. The railways have also cancelled some trains due to the Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan. The trains cancelled include the Kota Janshatabdi and Ajmer Shatabdi. The Dehradun Bandra Express and Mumbai Janata Express will not run for the next seven days, the officials said.
S N A Zaidi, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) reviewed the situations with stakeholders including officials of airlines, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Meteorological Department.
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