Dense fog hits flight, train & ferry services in city

Mercury had dropped below 7 degrees in several parts of western districts of Bengal. Several South Bengal districts witnessed dense fog in the early morning hours. 

MP, 16 Jan 2024, Kolkata: Flight services at Kolkata airport were disrupted early Monday morning due to dense fog. Mercury has however started soaring up from Monday. The Regional Meteorological Centre predicted that temperature will go up by 4 degrees in the next 2-3 days. 

According to inputs gathered, visibility dropped to 25 meter on Monday around 2:30 am which improved to 150 meter by early morning. This affected take-off and landing of flights at the airport. It was only around 8 am that visibility further improved to 300 meter. It was learnt that till 12 am on Sunday night, about 41 flights were cancelled while several flights could not land at the airport due to poor visibility on Monday morning from 5 am to 7:40 am. 

Dense fog affected several flights on the Delhi-Kolkata route. Several big airports, such as Kolkata airport, have a CAT-IIIB instrument landing system facility which guides the aircraft in low visibility conditions. It provides precision lateral guidance with the help of a localizer and vertical guidance with the help of a glide slope to an aircraft while approaching or landing on a runway. The system helps pilots land/take off in a 50 m visibility range. 

However, even as officials did not comment on the matter, airport sources said despite the presence of such a system, flights could not land since many of the pilots were not trained in instrument landing. 

Ferry services to Sagar Island also faced disruptions for approximately six hours on Monday due to dense fog, according to a police officer. “Ferry services experienced an interruption from 3.30 am to 9:40 am because of heavy fog,” explained a Sunderbans Police District officer. 

According to the MeT office, mercury had dropped below 7 degrees in several parts of western districts of Bengal. Several South Bengal districts witnessed dense fog in the early morning hours. 

Visibility dropped below 200 meter in several parts of South Bengal. Multiple trains from Howrah and Sealdah were rescheduled due to late arrival of the corresponding down link train due to dense fog. 

On Monday, departure of Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express was rescheduled at 6:30 pm instead of the scheduled departure time at 4:50 pm. Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express was rescheduled at 9:05 pm on Monday instead of the scheduled departure at 8 am, while Howrah-New Delhi Duronto 

Express was rescheduled at 10:20 pm instead of 8:35 am. Howrah–Kalka Netaji Express was rescheduled from Howrah at 3 am on January 16 instead of 9:55 pm on Monday. 13019 Howrah–Kathgodam Express was scheduled from Howrah at 1:15 am on January 16 instead of 9:45 pm. 22307 Howrah–Bikaner Express was scheduled from Howrah at 1:30 am on January 16 instead of 11:25 pm on Monday.

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/dense-fog-hits-flight-train-ferry-services-in-city-548356