Fog in North India takes heavy toll on transport

Apart from disrupting air traffic and slowing road traffic to a crawl, the heavy and pollution-laden fog covering a large part of northern India has also resulted in blackouts over areas of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and even Chandigarh as power lines tripped, affecting rail services.

"It was a difficult situation for both the passengers and the railway authorities. Trains were stranded for nearly three-and-a-half hours due to power failure. But, now, the situation is under control and rail traffic has been resumed at all the places," agency reports quoted divisional railway manager (Ambala division) HK Haggi as saying.

"In the Ambala division, 15 trains got delayed by one hour to three and a half hours. In total, over 50 trains were affected in Ambala, Ferozepur and Delhi divisions," he said, adding that the railway authorities have put in diesel engines to resume rail services.

Traffic movement along most highways in Punjab and Haryana was reduced to a crawl due to thick fog engulfing most parts of north India.

"The tripping in the northern grid took place at 3.02 am. The snag developed due to thick fog over Punjab and Haryana. Our engineers are working to revive power supply. In some areas, power supply has been partially revived," Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) chairman H S Brar said.

The cold wave also intensified, with Amritsar and other places recording zero degree temperature.

The UP Power Corp, meanwhile, is keeping its fingers crossed for Saturday, with the state meteorological department indicating heavy fog in the western parts of the state.

The warning has put the department in a tizzy even as it continues to witness tripping of transmission lines due the deadly mix of heavy fog and air pollutants. That's what happened on the last day of 2009 when over two dozen transmission lines in the western region of the state, Delhi and Haryana, tripped because of heavy foggy condition.