NEW DELHI: Parts of the national capital and its surrounding areas were covered in a thick blanket of fog as temperature dipped to 5.4 degrees Celsius on Friday morning.
Due to the fog cover, the visibility levels in the Indira Gandhi International airport area reduced to zero on Friday morning.
The adverse conditions, however, did not have any major impact on flight operations.
Delhi airport authorities, however, issued an advisory urging passengers to contact the airline concerned for flight information before leaving for the airport.
“Low Visibility Procedures are in progress at Delhi Airport. All flight operations are currently normal. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information,” authorities said.
The CAT III or Category III an instrument landing system (ILS) that allows aircraft to land in low visibility conditions, operations for takeoffs and landings are necessitated when very dense fog causes poor or zero visibility.
“While landings and takeoffs continue at Delhi Airport, flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is regretted,” they added.
The India Meteorological Department said the visibility dipped to zero at Palam airport at 7.30 am.
As many as 39 passenger trains to Delhi are running behind schedule as dense fog conditions continue to prevail in the national capital, resulting in low visibility, railway officials said on Friday.
According to Northern Railway, of the 39 train, three trains are running late by six hours. These are Ajmer-Katra Pooja Express, Katihar-Amritsar Express, and Khajarao-Kurukshetra Express trains.
Besides, six long-distance trains Bhubneshwar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express, Amritsar-Nanded Express, Azamgarh-Delhi Junction Kaifiyat Express, Kamakhya-Delhi Junction Brahmputra Mail and Seoni-Ferozepur Express are also running behind schedule and are expected to arrive late by four hours.
Similarly, Jammu Tawi-Ajmer Pooja Express is delayed by around five hours while 10 others, including Varanasi-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express, Bangalore-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas, Prayagraj-New Delhi Express, Chennai-New Delhi Express and Manikpur-Nizamuddin Express, are running late by up to two hours.
Besides, Rajendranagar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Kanpur-New Delhi Shramshakti, Chennai-New Delhi Express, Hyderabad-New Delhi Express and Maa Belhi Devi Dham Pratapgarh-Delhi Junction trains are late by an hour.