Fog Hits Chandigarh. Flights Delayed or Cancelled at Chandigarh Airport

December 29, 2010. Poor visibility at Chandigarh airport and dense fog in New Delhi, which caused delays in flights since Sunday, continued on Tuesday, further delaying the plans of passengers traveling to and from Chandigarh. Both air and rail travels have been delayed by the persistent fog. Tuesday’s situation was not as bad as it had been on Sunday and Monday. Nevertheless, the only operating flights were those with mid-day arrival and departure times and even these were delayed by a few hours. Visibility was still so poor in the early morning and evening at Chandigarh airport that flights operating at these times had to be cancelled.

Kingfisher Airlines operated only two flights. Its Chandigarh-New Delhi flight left the airport about half an hour behind schedule and the Chandigarh-Jammu flight left about two hours late. Meanwhile, Indian Airlines’ Mumbai-Chandigarh flight, which stops in New Delhi, was scheduled to arrive at 2 p.m. and reached Chandigarh at 3:40 pm. The flight then took off from Chandigarh at 4:15 pm instead of at its normal departure time of 2:50 pm.

Chandigarh railway station was also full of passengers waiting for their trains to arrive as the fog continued to cause delays. From Panipat to Karnal, visibility was only a few meters and the thick fog in this stretch was thought to cause the majority of the slowed rail traffic.

Today’s delays in arrivals at the railway station were not as long as those on the previous days.  The Shatabdi Express traveling from New Delhi reached Chandigarh one hour late, the Himalayan Queen arrived at the station nearly 45 minutes late, and the Sadbhavna Express reached the station around 30 minutes behind schedule.

According to authorities, all train departures from the station were on schedule except for the Kalka-Bandra Express and this train was delayed by over five hours, leaving the station at 4:40 pm as opposed to its scheduled departure time of 11:20 am.