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More govt measures for air traffic amid fog disruptions
India's civil aviation ministry has asked airport officials in Delhi, Mumbai, and four other cities to set up "war rooms" to monitor operations and report any issues three times a day due to ongoing chaos caused by dense fog. The government has also requested incidence reporting and the establishment of control rooms to address passenger inconvenience. The delays and cancellations have prompted the regulator to issue new procedures and the Delhi airport to accelerate runway maintenance. The weather conditions are expected to continue, with a cold wave alert and spells of dense fog forecasted for the next two days.
The Union civil aviation ministry has asked airport officials at Delhi, Mumbai and four other metro cities to set up “war rooms” to monitor operations and report any issues three times a day, minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday as the government announced more steps to ease the chaos triggered by dense fog.
The announcement, made by the minister in a post on X, came a day after air travellers reaching or leaving the Capital faced hours of delays, with close to 600 services affected over Sunday and Monday.
The delays and cancellations, triggered by dense fog in the early mornings which led to operation halts, prompted the minister to ask the regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue new procedures and the Delhi airport to accelerate work on runways undergoing maintenance.
On Tuesday, he said that in addition to those measures, the government has “sought incidence reporting thrice daily for all the 6 metro airports”, and for operators of these facilities as well as airlines to set up control rooms in these six cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata — “to address any issues with regard to passenger inconvenience with immediacy”.
Some disruptions in the national capital continued on Tuesday but were not as intense with roughly 150 flights affected till 7pm. The impact rippled out to the rest of the country, since Delhi is the main hub and the most frequent connection point for services in and out of other cities.
Scindia also said that runway 29R/11L had been made fully CAT-III compliant — while one side of the runway was functioning normally for low-visibility conditions, another part was working at a reduced CAT-1 capability. This meant that flights on this side could land only when visibility was at least 550m. In CAT-III, landings can take place even if the visibility is 50m.
The minister said another runway, 28/10, which is closed for resurfacing work, will also be operationalised shortly, reiterating one of the directions he had issued the previous day.
“Sufficient CISF manpower availability will be ensured round-the-clock,” the minister added.
In a letter to the government, the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) cited supply chain issues and a ban on construction for pollution mitigation as reasons for the delay in restarting operations on runway 28/10. It added this delayed delivery of the input material and lights needed to reopen the runway.
Runway 28/10, one of four in runways in all but one of two that can handle low visibility CAT-III landings, has been closed for re-carpeting. DIAL said the project commenced later than scheduled due to the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September. “Accordingly, [the] duration available for the project was compressed from 12 Sept to 15 Dec... Though the timelines were compressed, yet to meet... the requirements meticulous planning for all activities was carried out to complete all activities by 15 Dec...”
DIAL also cited the delayed supply of imported lights due to supply chain complexities. “Originally supplied signage offered some technical issues and needed to be replaced impacting the project timelines. Software configuration issues… and other unexpected challenges observed during cable laying process requiring re-work at multiple locations,” said DIAL in the letter, a copy of which HT has seen.
It added the contractor deployed additional manpower and resources from their other project site to meet the deadline and to cope with the difficulties circumstances posed.
The weather conditions leading to the chaos are unlikely to completely relent soon, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said, forecasting orange alert for “cold wave” for two more days with spells of dense fog likely till Thursday.
Dense fog — when visibility is below 200 metres, was reported only for two hours on Tuesday, with zero visibility reported at Palam for a 30-minute period between 7.30am and 8am. In comparison, fog had already become dense at 1am on Monday and at 12am on Sunday — lasting for four hours and 11 hours, respectively.
The IMD classifies fog as “shallow” when visibility is between 500 and 1,000 metres; as “moderate” when it is between 200 and 500 metres; as “dense” when it is between 50 and 200 metres, and “very dense” when it is 50 metres or lower.
With five consecutive cold wave days in Delhi, this is already equal with last year’s longest streak of five days — recorded between January 5 and 9, 2023.
“We are not seeing any significant change in the weather and so the minimum is not rising or dipping too rapidly. We expect cold wave conditions to persist for the next two days as well, with the minimum likely to be around 4°C at Safdarjung,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD. Fog intensity will reduce from Thursday until Saturday, he added.
(With inputs from Jasjeev Gandhiok)
