Air, rail traffic suffer as dense fog grips Delhi

Dense fog engulfed the national capital on Thursday morning and visibility dropped to zero in the early hours. At least 48 flights and nearly 75 train services were hit -- the latter stranding commuters at railway stations with little hope of timely travel, officials said.

"The visibility dropped to zero this morning with dense fog conditions. The visibility at 8.30 a.m. continued to be poor and was recorded at less than 50 meters," an official at the India Meteorological department told IANS.

The official added that the dense fog would not clear till 2.00 p.m.

The fog badly disrupted flight arrivals and departures at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport. At least 48 domestic and international flights were affected, an IGI airport official said.

"With the visibility plummeting to zero, low visibility procedures were employed. However, there were many delays and rescheduling of flights," the official said.

Even worse hit was the railways schedule.

According to a Northern Railway spokesperson, 20 trains were cancelled, 32 re-scheduled and 24 delayed because of the adverse weather conditions.

"The trains have been affected. Delays of three hours or more are mostly in Delhi-bound trains. The situation is also likely to cause disruption of train timings later in the day," the official warned.

The minimum temperature recorded Thursday morning was 7.2 degrees Celsius, the Met office said adding that the daytime temperature is likely to touch a maximum of 16 degrees Celsius.

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