Fog delays flights & trains, likely to stay

TT, Calcutta, Dec. 27: Dense fog disrupted flight and train services in Calcutta and caused several accidents that killed at least three persons across the state this morning.

The weatherman predicted misty mornings and an uninterrupted spell of cold for Calcutta till December 30.

Airport sources said around 30 flights were delayed by two hours on an average, the first time take-off has been affected in Calcutta because of fog this winter.

Thousands of passengers were stranded as flights were stalled from 5am to 8am with visibility dropping to 50 metres.

Met officials said the fog was caused by a higher incursion of moisture from the Bay of Bengal into the air over south Bengal. A low-pressure area over the Bay, coupled with an associated upper air cyclonic circulation, has formed a system that is likely to intensify into a depression in the next two days.

“The system has been causing a higher incursion of moisture, which has resulted in the formation of patches of cloud and the morning mist. The conditions are unlikely to change over the next three-four days,” a Met official said.

“The minimum temperature (in Calcutta) is going to stay between 11 and 13 degrees Celsius for the next three to four days,” an official of the India Meteorological Department said.

Airport officials said visibility began dipping around 5 this morning. Ten IndiGo flights from Calcutta were delayed by an average of two hours.

The day’s first IndiGo flight from the city took off for Delhi at 8.20am, two hours behind schedule, an airline official said. Six Jet Airways and five Air India flights were held up too.

When flights began landing at Calcutta airport after 8am, some of them had to hover in the skies for 15 to 20 minutes because of runway congestion. “The congestion was caused as several flights had got stranded,” an airport official said.

Long-distance as well as local trains were disrupted by the fog. Calcutta-bound trains from north Bengal were delayed by an average five hours.

The New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani was delayed by six hours, the Sealdah-bound Rajdhani by four hours and the Poorva Express and the Kalka Mail by six hours.

“We had to reschedule several trains from Howrah because the corresponding trains were running late,” an Eastern Railway spokesperson said.

The Janshatabdi Express to Odisha’s Barbil from Howrah, the Howrah-Titlagarh (Odisha) Ispat Express and the Howrah-Secunderabad Falaknuma Express were also delayed.

At least three people were killed and several injured in two fog-triggered accidents in Murshidabad and Burdwan this morning, police said.

P.K. Tewari, 29, a BSF jawan, and Sirajul Sheikh, 27, a hawker, died on the spot and 15 other passengers were injured when the Calcutta-Siliguri Volvo they were travelling in rammed into a stationary lorry and overturned on NH34 in Murshidabad’s Suti at 4am.

In Burdwan’s Tejpur, the driver of a Salt Lake-bound South Bengal State Transport Corporation bus from Bankura was killed when the vehicle collided with a lorry on NH2 around 7am. Around 20 passengers suffered injuries. Driver Sadhan Barui, 48, died on the way to SSKM Hospital.

A truck headed for Howrah hit a divider near a toll plaza on Vidyasagar Setu at 8.10am. Even around noon, the fog was so thick that the Howrah Bridge could not be seen from Vidyasagar Setu.