Fog refuses to lift from Delhi

Air and train traffic was hit for the 10th consecutive day as a thick blanket of fog engulfed the Capital on Sunday. More than 50 flights were delayed and 15 cancelled due to dense fog at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Air and train traffic was hit for the 10th consecutive day as a thick blanket of fog engulfed the Capital on Sunday. More than 50 flights were delayed and 15 cancelled due to dense fog at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

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Train services were also disrupted in entire northern India. More than 40 trains were cancelled and 58 were running late, some of them by more than 20 hours. The northern railway had to reschedule timings of another 47 trains.

Though fog was not as thick as in the past few days, it disrupted movement of flights, airport, causing inconvenience to fliers.

According to airport officials, fog descended on the airport at about 10.30 pm on Saturday but thickened in the wee hours of Sunday, forcing them to implement low visibility procedure (LVP) at about 3.25 am. The runway visibility dropped to almost 100 metres around 5.30 a.m.

“The runway visibility fluctuated between 100 and 175 metres in the morning, due to which the ATC did not allow take-offs, causing several flight delays,” an airport official said.

The LVP was lifted after six hours at 9.25 am, officials said.

The fog played truant with rail traffic as well.

Several important trains like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Sampoorna Kranti Express and Lichchhavi Express were cancelled, while others were delayed by more than 15 hours, northern railway officials said.