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With foggy days ahead, brace for more rail delays
Ludhiana, with the rest of northern India, has been reeling under a severe cold wave that has seen temperatures drop far below the normal levels; IMD forecast “dense to very dense fog” for the next couple of days
Travellers at the railway station continued to bear the brunt of fog-induced delays, with at least 15 trains running behind schedule on Monday.
The city, with the rest of northern India, has been
reeling under a severe cold wave that has seen temperatures drop far below the normal levels. The drop in mercury has been accompanied by dense fog.
The situation is expected to persist as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday forecast “dense to
very dense fog”, while issuing an orange alert for the next three days.
“Weather likely to be dry. Gradual rise in minimum temperatures by two to three degrees during the next few days over the region. However, dense to very dense fog likely at many places on January 15 and 16 and isolated places thereafter,” the statement read.
City shivers at 1°C
Night temperature dropped to bone-chilling 1°C on Monday, which was 4.5 degrees below normal. The city, meanwhile, trailed only Ballowal Saunkhri in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, where mercury fell into the sub-zero range at -0.2°C.
There was a temporary respite during the day with the district witnessing the highest maximum temperature in the state at 14°C.
On Monday, the thick blanket caused trains like the Sachkhand Express to be delayed up to 23 hours.
The Pooja Express ran also around 14 hours late, while the Udhampur-Subedarganj Express was behind 12 hours and the Sachkhand Express five hours.
Begumpura Express, Sealdah Express, Chhattisgarh Express and Howrah Mail were all also running around four hours behind schedule.
Amrapali Express, meanwhile, ran 12 hours behind schedule, Sambalpur Express 10 hours, Maurdhwaj Express and Malwa nine hours, Shatabdi over five hours, Amritsar Jansadharan and Shane Punjab also fell behind schedule, with more delays likely.
According to station officials, the travellers going to destinations relatively close like New Delhi or thereabouts, in such a situation choose to cancel their tickets and look for alternative modes of travel like buses or those with good resources, taxis.
In the first two weeks of January hitherto, the station has paid an average of ₹80,000 in refunds daily.
However, those en route to distant destinations like Pune, Kolkata or Mumbai are being forced to wait long hours.
Since the station has been in re-devolvement for over six months now, the waiting facilities are also far from optimal. Travellers are often forced to sleep on the platform in the biting cold.
Notably, the Sachkhand Express (Amritsar to Nanded) will not run between January 23 to February 6 and the (Nanded to Amritsarz route will also remain suspended from January 21 to February4 as it has been clocking a delay of around 20 hours due to fog.
Forst fear lingers
The plummeting temperature has raised concerns among agriculture experts at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), who have cautioned against the potential hazards of frost on the wheat crop in the coming days.
PAU department of climate change and agricultural meteorology Pavneet Kaur Kingra expressed her concerns, saying, “As the minimum temperature is being observed around 4° C or even lower at many locations in the state, there are chances of the occurrence of frost in the coming days.”
“Vegetables and newly planted orchards are more vulnerable to such incidences of frost,” she added, advising farmers to take precautionary measures and keeping crops hydrated through light irrigation to moderate the microclimate. Additionally, she recommended maintaining crop health with a balanced use of nutrients and employing mulches and protection barriers in the North-West direction for effective frost protection, particularly for tender vegetable crops and fruits.
