Sunday, December 25 2005 16:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Thick fog engulfed the capital today (Dec 25, 2005) morning, throwing normal life out of gear and sending air, rail and road traffic haywire for the third consecutive day today.

Dense fog enveloped Palam area, where the airport is located, reducing Runway Visibility Range to less than 50 meters since late last night, airport sources said.

No domestic flights could take off or land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport since 10:00 p.m. yesterday (Dec 24, 2005) and operations resumed at 9:50 a.m. this morning after weather cleared up.

"The weather improved after 9:00 a.m. With the sun shining bright accompanied by strong winds, visibility improved rapidly," they said.

Several private airlines, including Jet Airways, Air Deccan and Air Sahara had already announced suspension of operations due to foggy conditions.

Over 40 flights operating from Delhi have been affected while several international flights flying into the capital have been diverted.

Tempers flew high at the Airport as passengers were made to wait for long hours for their flights to take off.

Cold winds blowing from the NorthWest parts of the country pushed the mercury further down in the capital. While the minimum temperature was recorded at 6.2 degree celcius, the maximum temperature stood at 18.9 degree Celsius, which was a good 4 degrees below normal.

Several trains, specially from the northern parts of the country, were running late. The Amrapali Express from Katihar, G T Express from Chennai and Uncahar Express from Allahabad were more than five hours late, northern railway sources said.