Coldwave has tightened its grip in north India including the national capital as people gear up to welcome the new year with dense fog lowering visibility affecting train and flight schedules. Zero visibility was recorded in several places including Jorhat (Assam), Pathankot and Bhatinda (Punjab), Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir), and Agra (Uttar Pradesh) on Sunday morning, said the India Meteorological Department.
In Ambala (Punjab), the visibility was 25 metres and for Bikaner (Rajasthan), Patiala (Punjab), Chandigarh, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), and Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) it was 50 metres. Amritsar and Hisar (Haryana) recorded a visibility of 200 metres on Sunday morning, as per the IMD.
Dense fog was also reported from Delhi and the weather department has predicted it to prevail over the next week as well.
As many as 23 trains to and from Delhi are running late while the visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport was at 800 metres. "Trains are stopping at the outer of every big station. This is the major problem. This should be sorted out," a passenger at Delhi's Anand Vihar Railway Station told news agency ANI.
Amid the harsh coldwave conditions, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party President Virendra Sachdeva stepped out early in the morning and distributed warm clothes to newspaper vendors in Krishnanagar area.
"Our party workers are present here. The newspaper vendors start working early in the morning. The weather is very cold, so we are distributing warm clothes... It is PM Modi's message of Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas," Sachdeva said while speaking to the news agency.
The Air Quality Index in the national capital also dipped to 'severe' category at several places, said the Central Pollution Control Board. The AQI at Anand Vihar was at 425, in Dwarka-Sector 8 at 425, in RK Puram at 426, in Mundka at 431.