NEW DELHI: Six flights and 21 trains were cancelled, while over 60 trains were delayed due to fog at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and New Delhi Railway station in the Capital on Tuesday morning. Trains and flights were hit for the second day in a row as thick fog descended on Delhi-NCR on Tuesday, with visibility dropping to 300 metres.
"The sky will remain clear during the day, with dense fog in the morning," an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Tuesday's minimum temperature was recorded at 8.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average. The maximum temperature hovered around 21 degrees Celsius. The humidity at 8.30 am was 97 per cent.
Meanwhile, 24 trains were rescheduled due to fog in several parts of northern India. Nearly 40 domestic and 26 international flights were among those delayed.
According to IMD, general visibility improved to 200 metres at the Delhi airport, as compared to zero metres over the past two days. Flights were stopped from taking off between 11 pm and 12 am as visibility was nil.
The runway visual range (RVR) was between 800-1,000 metres early Tuesday, an improvement from the RVR range of 50-100 metres recorded in the last two days. Take-offs at Delhi airport require a minimum RVR of 125 metres and landings can take place with a minimum RVR of 50 metres. "Operations this morning are normal thus far as visibility at DEL is within minimums, but may change at short notice," commercial Vistara airline informed passengers on Twitter on Tuesday.
The airline also allowed passengers to change or cancel their flight bookings without any penalty.
Meanwhile, IMD has predicted "dense fog at many places and very dense fog at isolated places very likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, West Uttar Pradesh, north west and East Madhya Pradesh from midnight to forenoon."