Fog derails train services

IANS/New Delhi

Men walk on a cold and foggy morning at R S Pura, a border village about 22km from the northern city of Jammu yesterday

The winter chill continued its relentless assault on north India yesterday with the cold winds showing no signs of subsiding. The dense morning fog again disrupted rail and road traffic with as many as 69 train services affected in New Delhi alone.At least 50 trains were running behind schedule in Delhi and 19 were rescheduled as visibility fell to 400m in the morning. The minimum temperature settled at two notches below average at six degrees Celsius.Authorities have cancelled more than 25 trains from Delhi until January 31. In Rajasthan, several trains coming to Jaipur were delayed by two to ten hours due to the fog.In Haryana, power supply in some parts was affected after transmission lines tripped due to the dense fog. “The power supply was affected in Sirsa, Fatehabad, Bhiwani and Hisar districts,” an official said.Most parts of Punjab and Chandigarh experienced bright and sunny weather. The minimum temperature in Chandigarh was six degrees while Hisar and Rohtak in Haryana recorded lows of four degrees.In Punjab, Amritsar and Ludhiana recorded four and five degrees, respectively.In Bihar, the biting cold weather continued. At least 22 people have died in the cold spell in the last five days.The minimum temperature in Patna was 6.5 degrees while it was 4.4 degrees in Gaya. “The government had already sounded a statewide cold alert and directed officials to arrange wood for bonfire,” an official said.Up north, both Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh witnessed cold and dry weather conditions. However, there was no fresh snowfall or rainfall.“Because of clear night skies, the minimum temperatures will fall much below the freezing point in the Kashmir Valley during the next 48 hours,” said Sonam Lotus, director of the local weather office in Srinagar.