Fog cripples air and rail traffic

NEW DELHI: Delhi and other parts of northwest India witnessed the first dense fog of the season, more than a week before it was expected, that threw air and rail traffic out of gear. At Delhi's IGI airport, over 150 flights were delayed while five were cancelled and nine had to be diverted. The change of weather came about quite suddenly and the Met department was able to issue a warning to airlines only on Sunday night. Consequently, many were unprepared to operate in low visibility conditions.

The weatherman predicted that with no indication of winds picking up on Tuesday, the fog cover was likely to intensify in Delhi. There are also chances of light rainfall over the northwestern plains on December 24 and 25.

Train operations were also affected and 14 major trains were reported running late by up to eight hours. Major trains, including Sealdah Rajdhani, Sampoorna Kranti Express, Brahmaputra Mail, Magadh Express, AP Express, Karnataka Express and eight other trains were running behind schedule after encountering thick fog in the city. Some were so delayed that Railways had to reschedule 16 trains.

On Monday, Delhi's IGI Airport witnessed its first dense fog of the season, leading to a delay of 1-4 hours in around 150 flights, cancellation of five and diversion of another nine. Since the weather warning was issued on Sunday night, some airlines managed to station category-III compliant aircraft and crew - those capable of operating in a low visibility of 50 to 175 m - in Delhi in time for Monday operations but there were many airlines which could not operate through a large part of the day.

"Operations were closed at the airport between 7.40 am and 9 am, during which almost zero visibility led to suspension of all departures and arrivals. This is the peak departure time for domestic flights. The main runway 28/10 was in use for most of the low visibility period while the new runway 29/11 was usable for only an hour or so till 10.30 am. Since only one runway was available for operations, the flight handling capacity of the airport had come down automatically. Also, because several flights were not CAT-III compliant and could operate only when the visibility cleared after 10am, only 27 flights operated during CAT-III conditions and there was a huge backlog to clear which resulted in further delays," said an airport official.

Air traffic control has asked all airlines to ensure that CAT-III compliant aircraft and trained crew and pilots were stationed in Delhi.

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