Dense fog: 57 flights delayed, 6 diverted from city airport

KOLKATA: Hundreds of passengers were stranded and several fights diverted as heavy fog disrupted operations at the Kolkata airport on Monday morning, officials said.

No flight could take off or land at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport as a thick blanket of fog engulfed the area, they said.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded with all the early morning flights departing from Kolkata being rescheduled as visibility was down to 50 metres, officials said. The flights, which were supposed to land, were diverted to nearby airports, they said, adding that most of the flights were sent to the Ranchi airport.

Operations could be normalised only after 9 am after visibility increased, they said.

While 57 flights were delayed, six were diverted to other airports. According to the airport sources, 20 flights that were scheduled to arrive in Kolkata between 4:30 am and 9 am were delayed due to the poor visibility. 37 flights took off from Kolkata late. Six other flights, which were coming from other states had to be diverted to other airports. Among the six, two flights from Delhi and Bengaluru were diverted to Biju Patnaik International Airport in Odisha, three flights from Bengaluru, Delhi and Pune were diverted to Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi and one flight from Delhi was diverted to Guwahati airport.

Several local and freight trains in both Eastern Railway and South eastern Railway were delayed due to the dense fog.

Due to the foggy weather local train services were disrupted in the Panskura-Haldia and Kharagpur-Shalimar section. A similar weather condition prevailed in Rourkela-Kalunga section the same time. Normal services were resumed in Sealdah and Howrah Division by 10 am.