A chilly Christmas morning unfolded across the National Capital Region on Thursday with the mercury settling two degrees below the season’s average minimum temperature at 6 degrees Celsius.
Visibility swayed between 100 and 300 metres through the day and affected schedules of an estimated 115 trains, at least eight flights at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, and forced vehicular circulation to slow down on arterial roads connecting the NCR to Delhi.
Though fog hampered train operations with five trains being cancelled due to adverse weather conditions according to a Northern Railway official, no flights were restricted from flying as per the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), with officials attributing this to the enforcement of low visibility procedures at the IGI around 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening and being kept in place till noon on Thursday.
According to a statement released by the Northern Railway, Mahananda Express was delayed by 28 hours, Taj Express by 18:30 hours, Unchahar Express by 17 hours, and Purushottam Express by 15 hours.
Rajdhani trains and a Shatabdi train, too, were reported to have been severely hit by fog-triggered delays with the Patna-New Delhi Rajdhani being the worst affected and ended up being delayed by 12:30 hours; Dibrugarh, Sealdah, and Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani trains to Delhi being delayed by 7 hours each; the Kolkata-Delhi Rajdhani was delayed by 6:30 hours; the Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani by 6 hours; and the Kanpur-New Delhi Shatabdi was delayed by 11 hours.
Meanwhile, reduced visibility slowed down traffic headed to, and in motion within the vicinity of the Capital with drivers steering cautiously to avoid accidents and resulting pile-ups on the Natonal Highway 1 and 24, UP Link Road, and in several parts of Delhi such as Mehrauli-Gurgaon road and ITO among many other stretches.
