North India under grip of biting cold, dense fog; 11 hurt in UP accidents

TIL Desk/National/Lucknow/ Dense fog engulfed large swathes of north India reeling under intense cold as visibility reduced significantly, disrupting rail services and causing a vehicle pile-up in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.

The harshest winter period ‘Chilla-i-Kalan’ also set in Kashmir freezing fringes of many water bodies. At least 11 people were injured in the pile-up involving several vehicles on the Lucknow-Gorakhpur National Highway, even as a moderate fog cloaked Delhi where 18 trains were running late by 1:30 to five hours.

Operations at the Delhi airport remained normal. However, three flights were returned or diverted to the Delhi airport due to bad weather in Chandigarh, Varanasi and Lucknow on Tuesday night.

Amid low temperatures, high moisture and still winds, a layer of dense to very dense fog persisted over Punjab, Haryana, northwest Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and parts of Uttarakhand, according India Meteorological Department.

On the Lucknow-Gorakhpur National Highway, a bus overturned after colliding with a truck which led to the pile-up of more than 12 other vehicles. As many as 11 people in vehicles behind the bus were injured.