3 die in Himachal hit by intense cold, Valley remains cut off

Three persons, including two tourists from Delhi, have died in Himachal Pradesh which reeled under intense cold wave, while the arterial Jammu-Srinagar Highway could not be restored for traffic for the second day today due to snowfall.
Severe cold wave conditions remained in the northern plains, where parts of Rajasthan and Haryana experienced near-freezing temperatures.
A 60-year-old man was today found dead in a dharamsala in Shimla and police are suspecting that he died due to biting cold.
Two tourists from Delhi, Satyajit Singh (30) who had come to enjoy snow with his family, and Lakhpatra Gupta (75) died in the hill state yesterday.

Singh, who was newly married, died while he was enjoying a horse ride at tourist resort of Kufri, police said. He felt acute chest pain and was immediately rushed to Indira Gandhi Medical College here, where he was declared brought dead.
Gupta died near Sankatmochan temple here. His relatives said his heart beat stopped due to cold as he was aged.

Delhi witnessed chilly and strong breezy conditions that resulted in the mercury dropping to 4.2 degrees Celsius, making it a cold day with morning fog disrupting rail services. 59 trains were running late while 32 were rescheduled.
The Safdarjung observatory, the figure of which is considered official for the city recorded a minimum temperature of 4.2 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season's average while Lodhi Road registered a low of 3.8 degrees, a Met department official said.

At Palam the minimum temperature settled at 4.4 degrees Celsius and it was 4.2 and 5 degrees Celsius at Ayangar and Ridge respectively.
The maximum temperature settled at 19.1 degrees Celsius, a notch below season's average at Safdarjung, the official said.
In Jammu and Kashmir, traffic could not be restored on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway for the second consecutive day, even as air-traffic in Srinagar airport resumed as the weather improved.
"The national highway is still closed for traffic. No fresh traffic would be allowed to ply on the highway today," a traffic department official said.
Intermittent snowfall in Qazigund-Banihal stretch of the nearly 300-km long highway is hampering the efforts to restore traffic, he said.

"The air-traffic was restored today as the runway was cleared of snow following improvement in weather," Director, Airport Authority of India (AAI), Srinagar Airport, Sharad Kumar said, adding flight operations went on normally following the improvement in weather.
Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department here said, "The weather will improve from tomorrow. In fact, it could improve from this evening only and it would stay as such till January 21. From January 22 to 26 evening or 27 morning, there is possibility of another spell of rains or snow as the region will be hit by a fresh western disturbance.