North India continues to shiver; some flights and trains delayed due to fog

The movement of commuters to and from the National Capital was affected on Saturday morning as some flights and trains were delayed due to low visibility amid dipping temperatures in Northern India. In New Delhi the minimum temperature recorded on Saturday was 8.5 degrees with dense fog conditions predicted for January 22 and January 23.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, IGI Palam Airport reported 1100 m visibility.

"No dense fog is reported during the night at IGI," the IMD said.

However, low visibility was recorded in several parts of Northern India causing inconvenience to passengers travelling by train and air.

According to the IMD, Ambala in Haryana reported 200 visibility; Hissar 500; Delhi: Safdarjung 500 and Palam-1100.

Around 11 trains to Delhi from various parts of the country, like Khajaraho-Kurushetra Express, Ambedkarnagar-Katra, and Vasco-Nizamuddin Express, among others, were delayed due to dense fog conditions.

Passengers were seen waiting for their scheduled flights at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport as some flights were delayed and a few got cancelled amid fog conditions.

Notably, the Indian Meteorological Department on Saturday predicted dense fog conditions on January 22 and 23 in the National Capital and fog conditions on the rest of the days.

The temperature will hover between 6 degrees and a maximum of 20 degrees until January 25.

SpiceJet airlines on Saturday morning informed that flight services in Dharmashala and Jammu may get affected amid cold conditions.

"Due to poor visibility in Dharamshala (DHM), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may be affected. Passengers are requested to keep a check on their flight status. Due to poor visibility in Jammu (IXJ), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may be affected," SpiceJet posted on X.

Meanwhile, the arrival of nearly two dozen passenger trains to Delhi was delayed by up to 6 hours or more, and several flights were also late due to fog and poor visibility conditions on Friday.

As per the India Meteorological Department, the visibility was recorded as low as 50 metres at around 5.30 am on Friday in isolated regions. This included parts of Punjab, West Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Tripura, Uttarakhand, East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and East Rajasthan.

As on Friday at 5.30 am, very dense fog was observed in many parts of Punjab, in isolated parts of West Rajasthan, dense fog was observed in many parts of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and in isolated parts of East Rajasthan and Tripura.

As many as 22 Delhi-bound trains are running behind schedule following the dense fog conditions in many parts of the country.

According to Northern Railways, five trains namely, Khajaurao-Kurukshetra Express, Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express, Hyderabad-New Delhi Express, Rani Kamlapati-New Delhi Bhopal Express and Kamakhya-Delhi Junction are delayed by around 6-6.30 hours.