Dense fog disrupts air, rail traffic as Delhi’s air quality worsens amid chill
Officials said that no diversions or flight cancellations were reported at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport even as some flights were delayed
A very dense fog blanketed Delhi for a second straight day and disrupted air and rail traffic even as air quality worsened to the higher end of the “very poor” category and the mercury plunged to 7°C. An average air quality index (AQI) of 350 (very poor) was recorded at 8am compared to 318 (very poor) at 4pm on Thursday.
The visibility fell to zero at Palam around 8am and 50 metres at Safdarjung. No diversions or flight cancellations were reported at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport even as some flights were delayed.
On Thursday, over 300 flights were delayed with an average delay of 18 minutes. “CAT-III visibility procedures [which allow pilots to land even in low visibility] were in place at all three runways,” said India Meteorological Department (IMD) scientist RK Jenamani.
The northern railway said at least 24 trains were delayed by over an hour due to the fog.
The IMD classifies fog as “dense” when the visibility is below 200 metres and as “very dense” when it drops below 50 metres. Zero visibility was reported on Thursday as well. The lowest visibility was 100 metres on Wednesday.
The minimum temperature recorded on Friday (7°C) was around normal for this time of the year. It was 7.6°C a day earlier. The maximum temperature was expected to settle around 17°C on Friday.
