Delhi: Over 170 flights affected, 20 trains delayed due to fog

New Delhi: The national capital continues to grapple with biting cold and fog, impacting visibility and causing delays and cancellations in flight and train operations on Wednesday morning.

Flight movement to and from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport remained affected with around 120 flights including international ones getting delayed by several hours. 53 flights were also announced cancelled on Wednesday due to fog and other operational issues.

According to the Delhi Airport Flight Information Display System (FIDS) data, the 120 affected flights included 21 international departures, 23 international arrivals, 33 domestic departures, and 43 domestic arrivals.

Apart from the 120 flights affected, a total of 53 flights have been cancelled citing fog and other operational reasons, as per the FIDS data recorded till 8 am on Wednesday. This includes 21 domestic arrivals, 16 domestic departures, 13 international departures, and 3 international arrivals.

Meanwhile, around 20 passenger trains to Delhi were running behind schedule on Wednesday.

According to the Northern Railways, two trains namely Puri-Nizamuddin Purushottam Express and Hyderabad-New Delhi were delayed by around 6-6.30 hours.

Similarly, Azamgarh-Delhi Junction Kaifiyat Express and Ambedkarnagar-Katra were also running behind schedule and are likely to arrive late by around five hours.

A four-and-a-half-hour delay is expected on the arrival of the Katihar-Amritsar Express, the railways' data mentioned.

Six trains namely, Rewa-Anand Vihar Express, Vasco-Nizamuddin Express, Bhopal-Nizamuddin Express, Khajarao-Kurukshetra, Amritsar-Mumbai and Manikpru-Nizamuddin are likely to arrive late by around 2-2.45 hours.

In addition to these, eight long-distance trains are delayed by around 1-1.30 hours, as per the railways. This included Howrah-Kalka Mail, Saharsa-New Delhi Vaishali Express, Prayagraj-New Delhi Express, Muzaffarpur-Anand Vihar, Chennai-New Delhi and Jammutawi-Ajmer, the railways said.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, visibility was recorded below 200 metres in several parts of the country including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, West Rajasthan, West and East Uttar Pradesh at around 5.30 am on Wednesday.

Further, as per IMD, dense fog was observed in isolated areas of Delhi, East Rajasthan, East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam on Wednesday morning. (ANI)