Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Dense fog on Sunday reduced the runway visibility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here to less than 50 metres, disrupting flight operations.
Air traffic has been badly affected with around 30 flights to and from Delhi getting delayed.
About 12 domestic outbound flights were delayed by over two to three hours while five others to Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Shimla, Aurangabad and Lucknow were cancelled due to dense fog that started to descend over the airport late last night.
Five international flights coming from Dubai, Singapore and Beijing and same number of departing flights were also delayed by upto three hours.
The thick blanket of fog which has engulfed north India also affected rail traffic, with around 42 trains being delayed and nine others cancelled.
Flights delayed:
9W2228 Jet Airways New Delhi to Bhopal
S26143 Jetlite Airlines New Delhi to Bhubaneshwar
Indigo Delhi-Kolkata-Port Blair
IT4375 Kingfisher Airlines New Delhi to Jabalpur
Indigo Delhi-Guwahati-Imphal
IT4349 Kingfisher Airlines New Delhi to Shimla
SG217 Spicejet Airlines New Delhi to Pune
IT4633 Kingfisher Airlines New Delhi to Srinagar
Indigo Delhi-Kolkata-Agartala
Cold claims over 400 lives
Meanwhile, intense cold left 408 persons dead in north India as temperature dropped in Punjab and Haryana.
All the 23 fresh deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh, which alone accounted for 379 casualties so far this winter.
After a temporary respite from biting cold for a couple of days, icy cold winds blew in Amritsar, which recorded a low of 0.8 degree Celsius, three notches below normal.
Mercury also dropped in Ludhiana, where the low settled at 2.2 deg C, down four degrees. Patiala, too, faced a cold night at 3.7 deg C, three notches below normal.
Severe cold gripped Chandigarh, which recorded a low of 4.3 deg C, down by two degrees.
Haryana, biting cold swept Narnaul which recorded a minimum temperature at 2.3 deg C, followed by Karnal at 2.8 deg C, four degrees below normal. Ambala and Rohtak also experienced a cold night with minimum temperature of 4.1 deg C and 4.8 deg C respectively.
Foggy weather conditions affected flight operations in Chandigarh. Jet Airways has suspended all its flights operating from Chandigarh till January 18. Fog also affected train schedules.
Jammu reeled under intense cold with night temperature in the region slipping by a few notches, even as mercury level rose in Kashmir valley.
With PTI inputs
