NEW DELHI: Staying put appears to be the soundest course of action for travellers in the coming weeks . The fog that arrived with Christmas has now become a fixture, engulfing IGI airport for a good 12 hours from 9.51pm on Saturday. During this period, visibility was so low that the newest runway (29) was closed for eight hours, while the main runway (28) was out of bounds for five-and-a-half hours.
Those opting for trains faced a double whammy — fog added to the ongoing Gujjar agitation near Dausa, leading to a pile-up through the day. Northern Railway reported at least 112 trains, 60 of them in the superfast category, being delayed by four to 10 hours. A few trains broke all records this season. The Bandra Garib Rath from Mumbai and the Gujarat Sampark Kranti Express from Ahmedabad arrived 30 hours behind schedule. The railways deferred the departure of six Rajdhanis with Mumbai Rajdhani leaving the city seven hours behind schedule.
Two fog-related accidents on the city's roads left one person dead and seven others injured. Visibility dropped below 50m from 11.30pm on Saturday to 8.30am on Sunday.
The flight mess left some 63,000 passengers helpless and furious as winter holiday plans went haywire. IGI saw an unprecedented number of diversions, delays and cancellations during more than 17 hours of low visibility. Passengers spent up to five hours inside aircraft waiting for takeoff and 42 planes flying into Delhi had to be diverted to
Jaipur, Lucknow or Ahmedabad. Delays of two-14 hours were the norm.
Amir Parmar, who had come with his wife and two sons from Chandigarh to catch a flight to Mumbai, decided to return home after his SpiceJet flight was cancelled.
"We didn't know the flight was cancelled till we got here. Our train was cancelled on Saturday due to the fog, so we booked on the flight. We've been at the airport since 8am and everyone is clueless," he said.
Those opting for trains faced a double whammy — fog added to the ongoing Gujjar agitation near Dausa, leading to a pile-up through the day. Northern Railway reported at least 112 trains, 60 of them in the superfast category, being delayed by four to 10 hours. A few trains broke all records this season. The Bandra Garib Rath from Mumbai and the Gujarat Sampark Kranti Express from Ahmedabad arrived 30 hours behind schedule. The railways deferred the departure of six Rajdhanis with Mumbai Rajdhani leaving the city seven hours behind schedule.
Two fog-related accidents on the city's roads left one person dead and seven others injured. Visibility dropped below 50m from 11.30pm on Saturday to 8.30am on Sunday.
The flight mess left some 63,000 passengers helpless and furious as winter holiday plans went haywire. IGI saw an unprecedented number of diversions, delays and cancellations during more than 17 hours of low visibility. Passengers spent up to five hours inside aircraft waiting for takeoff and 42 planes flying into Delhi had to be diverted to
Jaipur, Lucknow or Ahmedabad. Delays of two-14 hours were the norm.
Amir Parmar, who had come with his wife and two sons from Chandigarh to catch a flight to Mumbai, decided to return home after his SpiceJet flight was cancelled.
"We didn't know the flight was cancelled till we got here. Our train was cancelled on Saturday due to the fog, so we booked on the flight. We've been at the airport since 8am and everyone is clueless," he said.
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