Delhi: The country’s capital Delhi and some parts of North India are in the grip of dense fog. Due to low visibility, challenges have arisen for flights and trains connecting the national capital with the rest of the country. Schools are also going to open in the city today after two weeks of winter vacation, although the timing has been reduced due to severe cold.
Delhi airport has issued a warning of dense fog as thousands of passengers patiently wait for their flights. Passengers have been asked to stay updated about flights as delays are common in foggy mornings.
Flight tracker website “Flightradar24” this morning showed that about 168 flights were delayed and 84 flights were canceled at Delhi airport, with an average delay of about an hour.
Indian Railways said on Sunday that due to fog, 22 trains coming to Delhi are running late by one to six hours.
Major airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara said that flights may be affected due to bad weather in Delhi and Kolkata.
Similar fog conditions led to disruption of flight and train services in Delhi yesterday and visibility in the airport area was zero. The minimum temperature was 7 degrees. The first cold wave day of the season was on Friday, when the temperature dropped to 3.9 degrees Celsius. Saturday night was the coldest with a temperature of 3 degrees.
Restrictions once again under GRAP
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) stood at 398 under the ‘very poor’ category at 6:00 am.
The CAQM reimposed restrictions as per Phase III of the revised Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the National Capital Region (NCR) on 14 January. GRAP sanctions were previously revoked on January 1.
The air quality fell into the severe category yesterday, due to which the Delhi Transport Department banned construction work and BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four vehicles in the city.
