New Delhi: Biting cold gripped north India on the second day of the New Year with two more persons succumbing to the chill as the death toll in the region this winter mounted to six.

Two middle-aged men, Pardesi and Ram Swaroop, died of intense cold in Sant Kabir Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh today.

In the wake of the increasing cold, the district administration ordered closure of all educational institutes in urban and rural areas of Sant Kabir Nagar for next two days.

Amritsar recorded the season's coldest day so far with a low of 1 degrees. While Chandigarh recorded a minimum of 6.2 degrees, Ambala shivered recording a low of 3.5 degrees.

Rohtak was the coldest place in Haryana at 2 degrees.

Road, rail and air traffic was thrown out of gear in Punjab and Haryana due to the thick blanket of fog with visibility level dropping to almost zero which also disrupted normal life there.

The region was covered under dense blanket of fog early today morning with visibility level dropping to almost zero, the Met department said.

Despite light fog covering the skies in the national capital in the wee hours, flight operations were reported to be normal at the IGI airport.

Delhiites experienced the coldest morning of the season today as the minimum temperature plummeted to four degrees, three notches below the normal at this point of the season, Met department here said.
Source : PTI