After a brief respite, foggy conditions returned to the capital on Tuesday, affecting air and rail traffic with affecting over 100 flights, and 40 trains.
After a brief respite, foggy conditions returned to the capital on Tuesday, affecting air and rail traffic with over 100 domestic and international flights being delayed and 18 others cancelled while 40 trains were running behind schedule.
Fourteen trains were rescheduled and one was cancelled.
Flights were delayed by up to four hours at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport this morning as general visibility dropped to below 50 m while runway visibility was 125 m, much below the 150 m mark required for planes to take
off.
Most of the morning flights to Coimbatore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Shimla, Lucknow, Aurangabad, Jaipur, Chennai were either delayed or cancelled and some clubbed with other flights, sources at the airport said, adding 12 domestic and international flights were also rescheduled.
"Due to low passenger load and to rationalise the availability of aircraft at other centres for smooth movement, we have clubbed some of our flights," an airlines officer said.
As many as 40 Delhi-bound trains were running several hours behind schedule as fog continued to affect rail services for the ninth consecutive day.
About 14 trains from New Delhi station were also rescheduled because of late running of incoming trains, Northern Railway sources said, adding these included Rajdhanis and Garib Rath to Jaynagar (Bihar).
on Monday, air travellers were a happy lot as a relatively clear sky after week-long foggy conditions allowed flights of various airlines to depart and arrive as per schedule.
Fog started to envelope the capital late on Monday night and visibility at the airport dropped to a low of 125 m forcing authorities to implement low visibility procedures (LVP).
The LVP was initiated at 10.09 pm when the runway visual range for main runway (28/10) dropped to 1300 m while of new runway (29/11) was 800 m.
It continued for about 13 hrs 21 min and terminated at 11.30 am during which about 183 (131 domestic and 52 international) flights, of which 46 under CAT-IIIB, 26 under CAT-IIIA, one in CAT-II and 110 in CAT-I conditions, operated.
Two domestic and six international flights were also diverted.
The situation began to improve after 11 am when the visibility went up to 1,100 m for the main runway and 800 m for the new runway.
The two runways are CAT-III B compliant but still flights get delayed as some airlines either do not have the CAT-III B compliant aircraft or CAT-III B trained pilots.
The DGCA has also asked airlines to roster their CAT-III B trained pilots and aircraft at Delhi airport to avoid any delay in arrival or departure during dense fog conditions.
Over 600 flights have been delayed and around 100 were cancelled during the past one week due to fog.
Among the trains running late are Puri-New Delhi Purshottam Express, Rajendra Nagar (Patna)-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and Kashi Viswanath Express.
The Delhi-Hatia Swarna Jayanti Express was cancelled from Tuesday till the end of the month, taking the total number of cancellations for the period to 14.
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