Fog hits air, rail operation in Jammu

Jammu, Dec 23: Dense fog and intense cold conditions threw normal life out of gear in Jammu, while air and rail operation also remained hit.
As per Metrology department, dry, cold and foggy conditions will prevail for next few days.
“Due to fog, two flights were cancelled on Thursday night and will take off this morning once the visibility is better,” the Jammu Airport official said. He added that no flight took off on Friday due to poor visibility. Meanwhile a railway official said that the trains are arriving 2 to 5 hours late from their scheduled time.
“The trains operation has hit from last night while the departure and arrival of trains is affected badly,” he said.
In wake of foggy weather conditions, Station Director Jammu Uchit Singhal organized a counselling cum safety awareness session was at Jammu Tawi Railway Station for all the staff, responsible for running trains.
Singla counselled the railway operations staff to take various safety related precautions during the prevailing weather conditions. The staff were also directed to follows laid down SOP’s and keep in mind the weak points during train operations in foggy weather
Earlier, in view of prevailing harsh cold conditions, the administration has declared winter vacations from schools and colleges from December 24 and December 27 (Kashmir Zone) and January 1 (Jammu Zone) respectively. The weatherman however, said that mainly dry weather till December 25 and shallow fog may develop at during morning hours in plains of Jammu.
From December 26-30, generally Cloudy Sky with intermittent Light to Moderate Snow at scattered places of Kashmir, higher reaches of Jammu and light rain in plains of Jammu is predicted.
Vehicles moved at snail’s pace on the road with headlights on to avoid any untoward like incident due to fog.
Tourists including the Vaishno Devi pilgrims coming from across the country, face hardships at the platforms in view of delayed trains and immense cold.
The winter capital witnessed minimum temperature 6.3 degree celsius last night and the maximum was 17.1 Degree Celsius.