Air traffic in Delhi restored

The national capital woke up to a bright and sunny morning today after a fog-marred weekend, restoring badly affected air traffic and bringing much-needed respite to road travellers.


The minimum temperature, however, continued to be below normal at 6.5 degrees Celsius while the maximum was registered at 21 degrees as intense cold wave conditions prevailed in the northern parts of the country.


All national and international flights from the Indira Gandhi International Airport here operated on schedule after three days of chaos, bringing back cheers to the faces of hundreds of harried travellers. While 21 flights have arrived, 42 have taken off.


The Runway Visibility Range (RVR) at the airport was 1,400 metres and the general visibility was around 700 metres, airport sources said, adding the situation will improve later in the day.


However, efforts at clearing the backlog caused due to heavy fog yesterday and Saturday led to some flights being delayed, cancelled and rescheduled, they said.


Thousands of travellers had a harrowing time during the weekend when movement of flights were badly disrupted due to thick fog engulfing the metropolis reducing visibility to barely 50 metres.


More than 50 flights were cancelled and over 100 delayed yesterday leading to heavy backlog of passengers, while several Delhi-bound international flights were diverted to other destinations in the country.


The weekend fog continued to wreak havoc on train traffic as Northern Railway cancelled three services -- Unchahar Express, Kalindi Express and Toofan Express -- even as some continued to run behind schedule