Delhi: Dense fog delays arrival and departure of trains by several hours

Delhi woke up to heavy fog five days ago and has been facing the brunt of the onset of winter ever since. At least 81 trains reaching Delhi were behind schedule and five trains were cancelled. 

Heavy fog conditions also led to cancellation and short-term termination of 64 trains from December 17 to January 15, 2017. Frequency of at least 28 trains was reduced from seven days a week to six to avoid back log. 

The maximum temperature in Delhi today was 26C and minimum will be 12C. The city will have little sun. At least 150 trains were cancelled this winter season and 3,500 were running later by four to 10 hours every day. 

Passengers have been left stranded at railway stations in Northern India where winter has taken over. 

"With our focus on safety, we have a fog safety device that will alert a driver about an upcoming signal well in time," Senior official Neeraj Sharma said.

"I had to return home for two consecutive days because the train was cancelled,' said Rajwinder Kaur, who had been unable to get a train to Amritsar from a Delhi railway station to attend her uncle's funeral.

Apart from trains running late or cancelling, passengers have only been allowed to wait in waiting rooms for maximum two hours. After that many have to sleep on platforms or wait there for trains that are running close to 10 hours late. 

The condition is same in other cities in North India. Amritsar, Lucknow, Kanpur are all freezing and woollens have been taken out of storage areas. 

Flights were also affected with frequent delays at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.