The Indian Railways has decided to cancel 26 trains once a week for a month because of fog in Bihar and north India. The move will be in effect from December 17 and will continue will January 17. Besides, seven mail/express trains that originate/terminate/pass through the East Central Railway zone have been cancelled for a month and 32 passenger trains in the same zone have been cancelled for two months.
Among these 26 trains are the Rajdhani Express, Sampoorna Kranti Express, Patna-Howrah Janshatabdi and Patna-Ranchi Janshatabdi. The step has been taken to restore punctuality. “The move will help us streamline the timing of express/mail trains, which have been running inordinately late in the past few weeks,” ECR Chief Public Relations Officer AK Rajak told Hindustan Times.
On Monday, as many as 82 trains were delayed and 16 were cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers in the lurch. A Northern Railway official said 23 trains were rescheduled as the visibility dropped to 400 metres on Monday.
Comparatively, flight services have been hit less. Officials of the Delhi International Airport Limited told The Times of India that no flight was cancelled on Monday. However, a few international flights arriving in Delhi and seven domestic flights operating to Patna were delayed.
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