Thick fog envelopes Delhi, disrupts train schedule

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) Thick fog enveloped the national capital Thursday morning disrupting train schedules. Several trains were delayed for hours or cancelled.

"As many as 24 trains to Delhi were delayed due to dense fog. Thirteen trains were  cancelled due to the fog while another six were terminated short of Delhi," Northern Railways's spokesperson Anant Swarup told IANS.

"Nine trains were rescheduled due to the inclement weather," he added.

The trains rescheduled are North East Express, Taj Express, Himalayan Queen, Bhopal Shatabdi, Lucknow Shatabdi, Puri Express, Shan-e-Punjab, Delhi Jogbani Express and New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani.

The problem is expected to continue for a few more hours as the weather department said the fog is going to continue till the afternoon.

"Delhi is covered under thick fog and it is going to be there till afternoon. Visibility recorded today (Thursday) morning was 100 meters," an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

The minimum temperature recorded was 6.2, one notch above average while the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 19 degrees Celsius, two notches below average, the official added.

The minimum temperature Wednesday was 5.6 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature was 19 degrees Celsius.

Due to the dense fog across the capital, vehicular movement also became slow and it took commuters longer than normal to reach their office.

"Normally it takes me around 30 minutes to reach my office, but today I took nearly an hour," said Prateek Sharma, an east Delhi resident.