Delhi cold wave: Indian Railways cancels over 300 trains in 2 days due to very dense fog

While Indian Railways on Sunday said foggy weather has affected the movement of over 480 trains, on Monday (January 9), over 260 trains were cancelled due to bad weather conditions the railways said. A total of 267 train, including 82 express trains, 140 passenger trains and 40 sub-urban trains, were cancelled. On Sunday, around 335 trains were delayed, 88 cancelled, 31 diverted and 33 short terminated due to foggy weather. The services were affected as visibility was reduced considerably on Monday morning due to a dense layer of fog that extended from Punjab and adjoining Rajasthan to Bihar through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Visibility levels dropped to zero metres at Bhatinda and Agra; 25 metres at Patiala, Chandigarh, Ambala, Bhiwani, Safdarjung, Ridge, Ganganagar, Varanasi, Fursatganj and Bhagalpur, and 50 metres at Hisar, Karnal, Palam, Meerut, Lucknow, Bahraich and Patna.

According to the weather office, 'very dense fog' is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, between 51 and 200 metres is 'dense', between 201 and 500 metres 'moderate', and between 501 and 1,000 metres 'shallow'.

Delhi saw cold wave conditions for the fifth consecutive day on Monday even as very dense fog lowered visibility to just 25 metres, hitting road, rail and air traffic movement, officials said.

The visibility levels dropped to 25 metres at the Palam observatory, near the IGI Airport, and the Safdarjung observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Satellite images showed a fog layer extending from Punjab and adjoining northwest Rajasthan to Bihar across Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Cold wave conditions persisted in the capital for the fifth day on the trot though minimum temperatures rose marginally.

The Safdarjung observatory logged a minimum temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius as against 1.9 degrees on Sunday. The weather stations at Lodhi Road, Ayanagar and Ridge recorded a minimum temperature of 3.6 degrees, 3.2 degrees and 3.3 degrees.

With PTI inputs