Delhi's air quality worsens; visibility drops below 50 meters; fog disrupts rail traffic, derails 13 trains

New Delhi: A thick blanket of fog engulfed Delhi on Sunday with visibility dropping to less than 50 meters and minimum temperature hovering at 5 degrees Celsius, the weather department said on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_4245749” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “As many as 13 trains were rescheduled after getting delayed for at least by 2 hours,” according to the Indian Railways. “Due to cold wave, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital touched “poor” category with the presence of moisture in the air increasing the atmosphere’s capacity to hold particulate matter (PM) for a longer time, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) said . The overall AQI of Delhi docked 252 in the morning. At Dhirpur, the AQI was recorded at 160 at 11 am, while in Mathura Road area it dipped to ‘poor’ category at 274. Furthermore, the AQI near Pitampura, Airport Terminal 3 and Delhi University stood at 276, 161 and 257 respectively. The maximum temperature in Delhi is likely to hover around 19 degrees Celsius. Railways said that the Rewa-Anand Vihar Superfast Express, Guwahati-New Delhi Express and Hyderabad-Delhi-Telangana Express were delayed by two hours each owing to low visibility due to fog. Other trains which were delayed by over two years include Howrah - New Delhi Duronto Express, Mahabodhi Express and Islampur New Delhi-Magadh Express.