Biting cold gripped north India on Tuesday while dense fog caused several accidents, leaving six people dead and 40 injured in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Haryana. The biting cold also forced schools in Punjab to change timings.
Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s car met with an accident near Agroha on the Hisar-Sirsa Highway late on Monday due to the dense fog. He was travelling from Hisar to Sirsa. A pilot vehicle in the cavalcade of Chautala collided with another vehicle near Agroha village. A security personnel with the Deputy CM was injured in the incident, while the deputy CM escaped unharmed. Taking note of the dense fog and accidents due to it, the UP Government on Tuesday evening stopped plying of State roadways buses at night from 8 PM to 8 AM (or till the fog clears), due to the dense fog posing a risk.
The top officials –regional and assistant regional managers will be on duty at bus stations from 8 pm to 12 am to monitor fog conditions.
Authorities have reduced the maximum speed limit on Noida expressway from 100 ton 75 due to dense fog.
Dense to very dense fog engulfed Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Dense fog also took Delhi in its grip on Tuesday , lowering visibility to “Zero” to 50 metres in the city and affecting road traffic and train movement. Flight operations, however, were unaffected in the national capital, an airport official said. On Tuesday, 11 trains were reported running late by one to six hours.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a ‘yellow’ alert for Delhi from December 20-23, which is a warning to ‘be aware’ on account of a forecast for moderate to dense fog. Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 6.3 degrees Celsius at the Safdarjung Observatory this morning. People were seen warming up near bonfires. The IMD said that minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to be lowered in the next few days in north west India.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced that all schools in the state will open at 10 am from December 21 till January 21 due to foggy weather. "In view of the safety of school students and teachers because of dense fog in the state, the timing of government, aided, recognised and private schools will be 10 am from 21-12-2022 to 21-01-2023,” said Mann in a tweet. At present, schools start at 9 am and close at 3 pm.
The IMD said that due to dry north/northwesterly winds from Himalayas over plains of northwest India, cold wave conditions are likely to continue in isolated pockets over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan during next five days .
According to IMD, fog-induced very low visibility was reported on Tuesday till 5:30 am from Bathinda (00), Amritsar, Ganganagar, Patiala, Delhi (Palam) and Lucknow (25), and Purnea (50m), Ambala and Agra (200m), Gorakhpur (300m), Bareilly, Patna, Gaya and Kolkata (500m). People were seen warming up near bonfires. A tweet from Delhi Airport’s official Twitter account informed that Low Visibility Procedures have been in progress at the Delhi Airport since midnight. “All flight operations are presently normal,” it said.
Two persons were killed and 24 injured in separate accidents amid low visibility due to dense fog in different districts of Uttar Pradesh. In Kaushambi, Nitish (25) was travelling with his friend on a motorcycle when their two-wheeler hit a stationary truck near Sayara overbridge on the Prayagraj-Kanpur road around 9 am due to low visibility. Eight people were injured in Sitapur when their van hit a stationary truck due to low visibility, police said, adding four passengers were grievously injured in the accident that occurred near Kalli village under the Misrikh police station area.
Dense to very dense fog engulfed the Indo-Gangetic plains including Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi for the second consecutive day on Tuesday lowering visibility to 0 to 25 metres in some areas , and affecting road traffic and train movement. Flight operations, however, were affected in some airports with over a dozen trains running late by one to six hours.