Dense fog crippled flight and train schedules in Delhi for the second consecutive day.
Flight operations at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport came to a standstill for about five hours, as visibility on all three runways dropped below 50 metres, said airport officials. The flights scheduled around 5 am were severely affected when the fog blanket that had engulfed the city worsened throwing the schedules of over 200 flights — 179 domestic and 45 international — into disarray.
Fog started to become dense around 5 am and the visibility dropped below 50 metres, the minimum required for landing under poor visibility conditions using the CAT-III B instrument landing system (IlS) at Delhi Airport. Fog started to descend on Delhi around midnight and it engulfed the entire city by morning, reducing general visibility to near zero, Met Department said. A senior official at the weather office predicted the fog will worsen over the week; Delhi and National Capital Region will face dense fog till forenoon during the week, and a partly cloudy sky during the weekend.
“Due to dense fog, visibility fell below 50 m. Flight landings at the IGI Airport were suspended from 6.22 am till 8.10 am and the take-offs from 5.16 am to 10.06 am,” stated DIAl’s post on Facebook. low visibility procedures (lVP) were initiated on both the runways, which were terminated only at 11.44 am when visibility improved. “The lVP on runway 11/29 continued from 9.25 pm on December 16, which lifted at 11.44 am on December 17. While on runway 10/28 lVP was initiated at 4.30 am, which also lifted at 11.44 am. A total of 154 flights were operated under lVP,” said a spokesperson with DIAl.
Dense fog on Tuesday threw schedules of trains coming to or going out of Delhi haywire. “Schedules of three dozen trains were affected on the day due to poor visibility conditions. Twenty one trains, including the lucknow Shatabdi Express, North-East Express and Odisha Sampark Kranti Express ere rescheduled,” said AS Negi, spokesperson, Northern Railways. Road traffic also bore the brunt of poor visibility as vehicles inched along in most parts of the city till around 11 am, after which the fog had lifted.