Flights Canceled, Trains Delayed: Smog Disrupts Delhi Transport

500 flights were delayed on 1 January and another 20 had been cancelled.

File photo of a train in dense fog.

(Photo: IANS)

After disrupting travel plans for the first two days of 2018, smog surrounding Delhi-NCR tampered with transport again on Wednesday, 3 January.

About 59 trains have been delayed, 13 rescheduled and a total of 21 cancelled on Wednesday due to the fog, along with some other functioning reasons, NDTV reported.

It also said that at least 60 flights were delayed and six were cancelled on Tuesday. Prior to that, 500 flights were delayed on 1 January and another 20 were cancelled at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi.

Dense fog and and high pollution in the area caused low visibility. Although weather experts and agencies have predicted air pollution levels to go down on Wednesday, there will not be much improvement in the quality of air as it will remain under the 'very-poor' category.

The pollution level in the capital, which was mostly in ‘very poor’ category for the past two weeks, reached ‘severe’ levels until 2 January 2018. It will slip back to ‘very poor’ from 3 January onwards.

System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research to IANS

The India Meteorological department, or IMD, has predicted slight increase in the wind speed which is crucial in order to dissolve effluents into the air to improve quality and visibility.

According to the Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, the AQI from 25 December to 3 January remained about 50 points above what has been recorded for the past two years, making it the worse in three years.

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