Dense fog affects Rail, Air Services across J&K

The rail services as well as the air services continue to affect in the state due to dense fog in north India for the last three days.
All the trains to Jammu Tawi, Udhampur and Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, Katra, are reaching late by 5 to 14 hours leading to chaos among the passengers. However, the Railway authorities claim that all the trains were being sent on time from the Jammu Tawi railway station.
The Jammu Tawi railway station has about 34 pairs of trains, which operate from here. All the trains are reaching late by 5 to 10 hours, but the authorities are sending them from here on right time by reducing the halt time at the source station.
Most of the passengers travelling to Jammu, Udhampur and Katra are security personnel and pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. The delay in trains are affecting the timely joining of the security personnel, who are returning from their respective home towns after their leave and the return plan of the pilgrims, who have already booked their return tickets.
“We had to reach Jammu by 8 in the morning, but our train is still at Pathankot and it is expected to reach by 9 pm. We have already booked our return ticket for Sunday and I don’t think we will be able to reach back to the railway station after paying obeisance at Mata Vaishno Devi by Sunday morning,” Sushil Tiwari, a pilgrim from Ajmer, informed Kashmir Post.
“We can’t even postpone our stay in Jammu as I have to join my office on Monday,” he added.
Ashwani Kumar, station manager, Jammu Tawi railway station, informed Kashmir Post that all the trains were coming late, but we are sending them back on time. “Only 13152 Sealdah Express will depart four hours late from Jammu. Rest all are going on time,” he said.
Meanwhile, air traffic to the Kashmir valley was again disrupted on Friday due to low visibility caused by foggy weather as the region registered a significant dip in night temperature.
The disruption caused cancellation of 18 flights scheduled to arrive and depart from the Srinagar’s only civilian airport here, a senior official said.
Sharad Kumar, the director of Srinagar International Airport, said 18 flights scheduled to arrive and depart were cancelled due to poor visibility. The official said six flights operated during the morning hours before the visibility deteriorated.
The disruption forced hundreds of passengers to opt for road travel. The frequent disruption of the air traffic during the past month has renewed demand for installation of the Instrumentation Landing System, which allows landing of passenger flights in adverse climatic conditions.
Srinagar International Airport is the only civilian airport in the Valley and hosts flights from six passenger airlines. The disruptions in air traffic last month had affected nearly 50,000 passengers.
The cancellation of flights in the region has come at a time when the region is heading for a harsh winter with night-time temperatures already plunging several degrees below the freezing point.
The overnight temperature in Srinagar city was a low of -3.4°Celsius, which was three degrees below the average temperature for this time of the season. The air traffic is likely to remain affected tomorrow also as the state weather department forecast suggested there would be no major change in the city’s weather. The department, however, said there was a possibility of rain and thunderstorm tomorrow evening and on Sunday, which could clear the fog and improve the visibility.