Dense fog and intense cold conditions on Saturday played havoc with life in north India, leading to three train accidents that killed 10 people and injured at least 40 others, disrupting air and rail traffic for the first time this winter, and a power breakdown as the northern grid tripped in the wee hours of the morning.
?Today?s fog is the most dense in this season so far. Visibility came down to 50 metres,? the Met office said and predicted similar weather conditions for Sunday too.
Flight operations at IGI airport here came to a total standstill on Saturday morning due to the fog and a cable glitch, leading to disruption of over 200 flights. No flight could take off or land for over eight hours, from 2 am to 10.30 am, as runway visibility dropped to 100 metres and general visibility to less than 50 metres.
While 200 domestic flights were delayed, 14 were cancelled and 17 international services diverted to some other cities.
The low visibility apparently caused three separate rail accidents involving five passenger trains in Uttar Pradesh, killing 10 and injuring about 40 others, 15 of them seriously.
Eight women and two men, including the guard of the Allahabad-bound Prayagraj Express, were among those killed when the Bhiwani-Gorakhpur Gorakhdham Express rammed into it at Panki railway station, near Kanpur. The accident took place when the two trains coming from Delhi were on the same track, Harishchandra Joshi, general manager, North Central Railway, (Allahabad Zone), said. Though fog appeared to be the reason behind the mishap, an inquiry has been ordered.
There were two other rail accidents when the Delhi-Sitamarhi Licchavi Express rammed into the stationary Magadh Express at Sarai Bhopat near Etawah and Sarju Express rammed into a tractor-trolley at an unmanned railway crossing in Pratpgarh, 60 km from Allahabad.
There were no deaths in these two accidents but one of the drivers was seriously injured.
The cold wave conditions also led to tripping of 35 lines of the Norther Grid at around 3.02 am. A technical snag in transmission lines reduced power to zero at many sub-stations in Punjab and Haryana. It took seven hours to resume power supply.
Electricity was partially restored in some parts of Punjab and Srinagar by 7.30 am after supply from Jalandhar, Nathpa Jhakri (Himachal Pradesh) and Uri sub-stations were diverted to these states. Normal supply in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir was restored by 10.30 am and it took a little longer in Punjab.
In the Capital, areas like Rithala, Shalimar Bagh and many localities in North Delhi plunged into darkness. Technical teams of Northern Grid and Delhi Transco were working to restore the lines, a Transco official said.
Officials of Central transmission utility PowerGrid Corporation said normalcy has been restored in Punjab and Haryana.
?All the stations in Punjab have been given start-ups (late in the afternoon) and they would commence resuming supply any time soon … system has come to normalcy,? PowerGrid Corporation (PGCIL) CMD S K Chaturvedi said.
The grid failure also led to disruption of supply to hydel and thermal power plants in the Northern states. Supply in Ropar, Bathinda, Lehra Mohabbat power projects in Punjab and Yamuna Nagar and Panipat power stations in Haryana was disrupted.