February 06, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 27, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 5: Air, rail and road traffic disrupted as thick fog engulfed Punjab cities, including Lahore, on Tuesday, also keeping the weather extremely cold.

The Met office said fog developed as a result of clear sky and low temperature Monday night.

The airport authorities said the flight operation remained disrupted between 6am to 11am. And the delay it caused continued affecting the operation till late on Tuesday night. Many incoming local and foreign flights were delayed by several hours, leaving passengers to strand at the airport.

“We are struggling to normalise the operation but it looks hard to do so because of the huge backlog of delayed incoming and outgoing flights,” a senior official of the airport said.

Railway officials said many trains were late because they had to be driven at a slow speed for safety. The visibility was low on the tracks blanketed by fog everywhere in Punjab.

The worst-affected was Awam Express that could reach here six-and-a-half hours late than its scheduled time.

The Jaffar Express was late by four hours, Karakorum Express and Quetta Express by three-and-a-half hours, Allama Iqbal Express by three hours and Tezgam was two-and-a-half hours late than their scheduled time.

Sanitary conditions at all the platforms of the city railway station were far from satisfactory. A number of passengers were found either sitting on their luggage or standing in the absence of proper seating arrangements, especially at platforms Nos 2, 4 and 5. Railway authorities said that bad weather forced them to impose speed restrictions that result in delays.

Fog started descending throughout the province during the early hours of Tuesday.