Cold wave in northern India continues, claims 195 lives
New Delhi: The cold wave disturbed normal life for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday and the death toll due to the extreme harsh weather is now reported to be
over 195. Around 31 more deaths were reported from the various districts in Uttar
Pradesh with Agra recording a temperature of 5.4 degree Celsius, the coldest in the
state. A foggy Thursday morning brought
bad news for air travelers in Delhi as round 35 flights have been hit with runway
visibility dropping down to barely 50 meters. The national flights affected are
Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Leh, Delhi- Bangalore, Jaipur-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow,
Delhi-Mumbai,
Delhi-Ahmedabad, and Guwahati-Imphal. Several international flights have also
been affected. The international flights coming from Singapore, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi,
London, Istanbul, Tehran and Beijing along with eight outgoing international flights
have been delayed. Several trains have also been hit due to the foggy weather.
Six trains have been cancelled and 46 others have been delayed. The office of
the Meteorological department has warned of a thick fog in the capital from
mid-week
and there are reports that the foggy weather will continue to cover Delhi for
at least four hours on Thursday morning. Seven more deaths were reported from
Bihar taking the death toll in the state to 21. Earlier on Wednesday, around 157
deaths were reported from across the country. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
had on Tuesday ordered all schools to be closed for three days in view of the
cold. Visibility was reduced to a few meters in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and
Delhi on Thursday morning. In Punjab, all schools have been closed till January
8 due to the cold. All incoming and outgoing flights from Chandigarh stood cancelled
on Wednesday. Railways have cancelled around 19 trains till January 31 due to
the prevailing foggy weather conditions in north India.
