Fog continues to affect air traffic in Delhi

NEW DELHI, DEC 29: Despite a relatively clear day that saw the maximum temperature rise by nearly five degrees to 20.2 degrees celsius wi...

NEW DELHI, DEC 29: Despite a relatively clear day that saw the maximum temperature rise by nearly five degrees to 20.2 degrees celsius within 24 hours, flight and train movement stayed affected by fog in the capital today.

After two days, fog cleared sufficient enough to begin operations at the airport at 09.45 am. Last night dense fog forced airport closure at around 11 pm hrs.

Airport director Nagar V Sridhar said the situation was much better than yesterday with less congestion at the terminals and very few cancellation of flights.

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He said of the 22 international flights, which were to have landed and taken off between 8 pm hrs and 8 am, 14 were rescheduled for the afternoon, four took off on time, two were diverted to Mumbai while two were on ground. The situation with domestic carriers, including Indian Airlines, was also much better today.

Meanwhile, trains continued to remain badly affected even today and northern railway had to cancel as many as four services. Most of the major trains wererunning late.

The trains cancelled were Jalandhar-New Delhi, New Delhi-Amritsar and Gomti Express trains and the Shan-e-Punjab Mail. The Magadh Express was delayed by nearly 13 hours and would leave only tomorrow, Howrah Janta and Gondwana Express trains by eight hours and Kalindi express by six hours.

But northern railway also made arrangements to sun some of the outgoing service in time as per schedule by pressing spare trains into service. They were the Lal Qila Express, Purshotam Express, Brahmaputra Express, Prayagraj Express, Guwahati Rajdhani, Lucknow Mail and Gonda Express.