Fog, icy winds affect rail, road and air traffic in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Dense fog and icy winds affected rail, road and air traffic in Uttar Pradesh Wednesday. More than 24 passenger trains and 290 state roadways night service buses were cancelled for the fear of accidents, an official told IANS. Many morning and night flights were also cancelled as the foggy conditions continue to prevail in the state. [caption id=“attachment_1328533” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Fog in Delhi. PTI image[/caption] A large number of buses were withdrawn from the fleets in Saharanpur, Meerut, Jhansi, Allahabad, and between Lucknow and New Delhi. “This has been necessitated owing to poor visibility and inclement weather. We do not want to risk the lives of passengers and hence a decision to cancel many night buses has been taken,” an official of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation told IANS. Northern Railway officials said more than 70 percent trains were running hours behind the schedule. Major trains that were running late included Raptisagar Express, Shatabdi Express, Kaifiyat Express, Lokmanya Tilak, Pushpak Express, Kota-Patna Express, Vaishali, and Marudhar Express. Hundreds of passengers are stranded in open at various railway stations, officials admitted. The lone train between Varanasi and Dehradun - Janta Express - has also been cancelled till Jan 16, a railway officials said. Poor visibility and extreme foggy conditions have also hit air services, with Go Air cancelling its Delhi-Lucknow and Lucknow-Delhi morning flight (G-8-187/188) till Jan 10. The Spicejet has cancelled its night flight (SG-419) between Lucknow-Mumbai till Jan 31. Fog in the state capital bedevilled the power supply as the high moisture helped the dust laden insulators and 11 KV lines gather dew and snapped, leading to outages in the city at many places. The Met Office said the weather will continue to remain the same for the next few days and in some places the mercury is likely to drop even further. Sun will only show up later in the day Wednesday, the weatherman said. Tuesday’s maximum temperature was 16.3 degrees Celsius, which was six degrees below Monday’s temperature. The minimum temperature slumped to 6.5 degrees celsius, 3.5 degrees less than the previous day.