Fog, severe cold throw normal life out of gear in north India

New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Normal life was on Saturday thrown
out of gear due to dense fog in north India, where poor
visibility led to three train accidents claiming ten lives and
disruption of flights from the Delhi airport for the first
time this season.
Over two dozen cold-related deaths were reported from
various parts of Uttar Pradesh in north India since Friday
night taking the total number of such casualties to 40 this
winter.
To make matters worse, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh
and parts of Jammu and Kashmir reeled under a power crisis as
35 lines of the northern grid tripped around 3 AM IST
following a technical glitch in the transmission lines
triggered by fog and cold conditions.
Amritsar recorded the season's lowest temperature at minus
1.2 degree Celsius making it the coldest place in the region
even as minimum temperature rose by up to three notches at
several places of Punjab and Haryana. Chandigarh shivered at
4.2 deg C, two degrees below normal.
In Rajasthan, Mount Abu remained the coldest place with a
minimum of 4 deg C followed by Ganganagar at 4.9 deg C early
Saturday morning.
With mercury showing no signs of relenting in Jammu and
Kashmir, the banks of famous Dal lake were partially frozen
with minimum temperature dipping to minus 4.8 deg C in
Srinagar. Boatmen found it difficult to ferry passengers in
the morning due to the frozen banks of the lake.
Leh in Ladakh region recorded a minimum of minus 18.6 deg
C while Pahalgam hill resort in south Kashmir continued to be
the coldest place in the valley with a low of minus 6.9 deg C.
In Uttar Pradesh, over two dozen people died in various
districts since Friday night as an intense cold wave swept
major parts of the state, official sources said in Lucknow.
While five persons died in Bhadoi, four deaths each were
reported from Ghazipur, Allahabad and Gorakhpur. Three persons
died in Deoria, two in Siddharth Nagar and one each in
Kushinagar, Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Varanasi, they added.
Shahjahanpur, which recorded a minimum temperature of 5
deg C Saturday morning, was the coldest place in the state.
Cold conditions, however, eased further in Shimla and
other lower areas of Himachal Pradesh with rise in temperature
but the higher reaches of the state remained under sub zero
temperature.
While Shimla, the queen of hills, recorded a day
temperature of 17.6 deg C, Keylong, headquarters of Lahaul &
Spiti district, was the coldest place in the state with a
night temperature of minus 11.8 deg C.
In Delhi, visibility was reduced to 50 metres this morning
because of dense fog. The minimum temperature in the national
capital rose from 6.6 deg C Friday to 8.4 deg C Saturday.
"Today's fog is most dense in this season so far. The
visibility came down to 50 metres," the Met office said and
predicted similar weather conditions on Sunday also.
Over 90 flights were hit due to thick fog and cable fault
at the Indira Gandhi International airport here. While 70
domestic flights were delayed, six were cancelled and 17
international services diverted to some other cities.
The Met office has forecast rains and thundershowers in
parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh
within next 24 to 48 hours. PTI TEAM
SDE