RailEnquiry

PATNA: Bihar is in the grip of cold wavelike situation with the minimum temperature plummeting sharply with foggy weather conditions disrupting rail and air services.Meteorological office director A K Sen said there has been a sharp decline in the day temperatures over the past three-four days which has set in chilly weather condition throughout Bihar. The condition will persist over the next couple of days with chilly winds sweeping through the plain regions of the state, he said.Chhapra remained the coldest place in Bihar with a minimum temperature of 6.2 degree Celsius, while Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur recorded minimum temperature at 7.7, 6.7 and 9.1 degree Celsius this morning, the Met office said.A thick fog enveloped large parts of the state disrupting rail and air services with a number of trains, including the Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express running late by several hours, Railways sources said.According to Danapur rail division PRO R K Singh, all Patna-bound trains, particularly from Delhi, were running abnormally late on Monday. The dense fog on the Delhi-Mughalsarai route has been affecting normal movements of passenger trains. As a result, most of the night trains have been running on maximum caution due to poor visibility, he said. The important trains running abnormally late on Monday included New Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express (500 minutes), Azimabad Express (490 minutes), Toofan Express (360 minutes), Vikramshila Express (600 minutes), Sampoorna Kranti Express (720 minutes), Shramjeevi Express (280 minutes), Jansadharan Express (720 minutes), Poorva Express (300 minutes), Lokmanya Tilak Express (360 minutes), Sanghmitra Express (120 minutes), Magadh Express (400 minutes), Brahmputra Mail (900 minutes), Punjab Mail (430 minutes) and Farakka Express (840 minutes), the PRO said, adding several pairs of Delhi-bound trains were rescheduled from Patna Junction.Landing and take-off of commercial flights at Patna airport were affected due to poor visibility, airport director Arvind Dube said. No flights could land or take-off before 2.30pm. The morning flight of Indigo from Mumbai landed at 2.30pm, while the first flight from New Delhi landed at 5.30pm. The Jet Airways' flight number JAI 727 from New Delhi was cancelled for the day."The visibility at Patna airport was as low as 300 metres in the morning. It improved to 900 metres around 1.30pm and 1400 metres around 4pm. But later, the visibility improved to 1600 metres," said the weathermen.