E-Paper
Fog fallout: 20 injured in bus mishap in Tarn Taran, 7 vehicles in Karnal pile-up
22 trains cancelled, six partially terminated in Punjab; flights delayed, cancelled in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bathinda
At least 20 people were injured when a bus rammed into a truck in Tarn Taran district as dense fog blanketed Punjab on Wednesday, leading to the cancellation of 22 trains and partial termination of six, while disrupting flight operations in Amritsar, Bathinda and Ludhiana.
A private bus headed from Amritsar to Bathinda hit a truck parked on the roadside near Thathian Mahanta village in Tarn Taran district due to poor visibility early in the morning, leaving 20 passengers injured, police said. Some of the victims had to be hospitalised.
In neighbouring Haryana, seven vehicles crashed into each other due to dense fog, causing a pile-up on the Karnal-Indri highway early in the morning. No major injury was reported in the accident. Eyewitnesses said a tractor-trolley loaded with sugarcane broke down near Ramba village on Tuesday night but was not removed from the road. Due to poor visibility in the morning, a truck hit it followed by a Canter and four cars.
Visibility dropped to less than 50m at 8.30am in Hisar, Karnal, Bhiwani, Sirsa in Haryana. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted “dense to very dense” fog in most of the northern and western districts of Haryana till Thursday. A red alert has been issued for Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Jind, Rohtak, Sonepat and Hisar for Thursday.
Stranded passengers brave cold at stations
Passengers were stranded at the Ludhiana station as 33 trains were running late due to the fog with the Amrapali Express delayed by 10 hours. The station is being revamped due to which waiting facilities have been demolished. The stranded passengers, many of them senior citizens, women and children, were forced to wait it out in the cold. The minimum dipped to 5.2 degrees Celsius in Ludhiana early on Wednesday.
The railways have cancelled the Amritsar-Banmankhi Jan Sewa Express till February 29 and the Jammu Tawi-Rishikesh train till February 25. Rail services between Chandigarh and Amritsar have also been suspended till March 1. The Amritsar-Lalkuan train stands cancelled till February 24, while the Amritsar-Jaynagar train will resume after February 27.
The railway release said that the Ajmer-Amritsar train stands terminated till February 29 and the Tatanagar-Amritsar till February 28. Rail services between Chandigarh and Ferozepur Cantt are cancelled till February 29.
The Kalka-Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra train is cancelled till February 27, while the Amritsar-Nangal dam train stands terminated till February 29.
The Agra Cantt-Hoshiarpur train has been partially terminated in December and January along with the New Delhi to Jalandhar City train till February 29.
Flights delayed, diverted
Flight operations at Bathinda airport continued to be affected for the second day on Wednesday after the lone flight was cancelled. The flight of Flybig, a new private entrant, from Hindon in Ghaziabad to Bathinda was cancelled. With a 19-seater twin otter aircraft, the Flybig runs the flight five days a week from Bathinda. Flybig station manager Rajesh Kumar said: “The flight did not take off from Hindon due to weather conditions so the operations were suspended for Wednesday at Bathinda.”
Alliance Air flights were also delayed by at least an hour. The airlines flies a 48-seater plane on alternate days thrice a week from Bathinda.
Airline airport manager Laxman Bhardwaj said “AA flights have not been cancelled but only delayed due to dense fog for an hour. Flights are coming from other sectors where fog has decreased visibility.”
Dense fog was witnessed in all seven districts of south Punjab, namely Bathinda, Faridkot, Moga, Mansa, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Muktsar, on Wednesday morning.
Amritsar international airport also reported delays and cancellations.
Inputs from Ferozepur, Faridkot, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Karnal
