Date:07/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/07/stories/2009010761710300.htm

New Delhi

Fog upsets air, rail traffic again

Staff Reporter

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

A thick blanket of fog reduced visibility to under 50 metres, thereby disrupting flight and train schedules as well as making driving difficult in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Air and rail traffic went completely haywire in the Capital on Tuesday morning because of dense fog.

Over 200 domestic and international flights were delayed, while three dozen trains were running behind schedule. Fourteen trains were rescheduled and as many cancelled.

At Delhi airport, departure terminal 1B was crammed with passengers up to 1 p.m., with flights getting delayed by 30 minutes to over four hours.

Clubbed flights

As many as 20 flights were cancelled, while 12 were rescheduled due to poor visibility at the airport. A couple of airlines clubbed some flights due to low passenger load. Eight flights, six of them international, were diverted.

A Kolkata-based family coming from Jammu had a particularly harrowing day on Tuesday. “Our train from Jammu to Delhi got delayed by several hours because of fog. We were scheduled to take a train back to Kolkata, which was running more than 15 hours late. So we decided to come to Delhi airport to catch a flight. We will have to spend so much extra money thanks to the fog,” rued a family member.

“Visibility fell at the airport late on Monday night. Low-visibility procedures were implemented around 10 p.m. on Monday, when the Runway Visual Range on the main runway was 1,300 metres and RVR on the third runway was 800 metres. The LVPs were lifted at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, when the RVR improved slightly,” airport sources said.

The LVPs were in force for over 13 hours, during which 183 flights, including 72 domestic arrivals, 59 domestic departures, 30 international arrivals and 22 international departures, operated from the airport.