Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) The biting cold conditions of the past few days let up a little over most of north India Tuesday with a warm sun shining through in some parts and rain or snow in Jammu and Kashmir, though the morning fog did lead to disruption in train and flight schedules. In Uttar Pradesh, 65 people have died of the cold wave.

In the national capital, the minimum temperature was three notches below average at 4.8 degrees Celsius.

Around 70 trains were delayed due to poor visibility while several flights were reported delayed or cancelled.

According to the Delhi International Airport Limited’s (DIAL) website at 11 a.m., six domestic flights arriving in Delhi were delayed and five were cancelled. One international flight each suffered cancellation and delay. Two domestic flights from Delhi were delayed and three were cancelled while five international flights were delayed and one was cancelled.

However, DIAL officials denied fog was affecting air traffic.

Reports from Kolkata said many trains from northern and western India, including the New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express, were delayed by 8-12 hours due to the fog.

The cold wave sweeping large parts of Uttar Pradesh over the past three days has claimed 65 lives so far, an official said.

According to an official source, “most of the dead were pavement or slum dwellers, with very little or virtually no woollens to protect them from the biting chill”.

The Uttar Pradesh administration has ordered closure of all schools for students up to Class 8.

In Orissa too, the cold wave sweeping most parts of the state prompted authorities to delay school hours.

The district headquarter town of Phulbani, about 200 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, has been experiencing temperatures below six degrees Celsius since the past few days. In some interior places, the minimum had plummetted to below three degrees Celsius this week, district collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil told IANS.

The fog and cold wave conditions continued to affect life in Punjab and Haryana Tuesday though the minimum temperatures were 1-2 degrees higher compared to last three-four days.

In Haryana, thick fog affected road and rail traffic. Most trains ran two to six hours behind schedule.

Flights on the Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi sector were hit. Some were cancelled.

Gurgaon-based entrepreneur Sandeep Brar, whose Chandigarh-Delhi flight Monday evening was cancelled, had to travel to Delhi by road.

“We took nearly 10 hours to reach Gurgaon from Chandigarh by taxi. Visibility was zero on most part of National Highway,” Brar told IANS from Gurgaon in Haryana.

Roadways staff in Chandigarh said buses were taking two to four hours extra to reach their destinations in the evening and night due to thick fog.

While Chandigarh recorded a low of 7.2 degrees, Amritsar and Patiala were at 7.4 and 6.2 degrees respectively, a Met official said.

Kashmir Valley received fresh snowfall, breaking the fortnight-long cold wave and bringing relief to the people.

The Sonamarg tourist resort received 10 cm of fresh snowfall Tuesday while there was snowfall in Pahalgam and Gulmarg as well, Sonam Lotus, director of the meteorological office, told IANS in Srinagar.

“The minimum temperature was minus 0.3 degrees in Srinagar, minus 1.2 in Pahalgam and minus 7.0 in Gulmarg,” said another official.