Chandigarh, January 23: People across Punjab and Haryana reeled under severe cold wave conditions while a thick blanket of fog affected normal life, hitting air, rail and road traffic in the region today. In a fog-related mishap in Haryana”s Jind district today, eight persons were killed and seven others injured in a collision between a jeep and a milk tanker, police said.
Flight operations were also hit due to heavy fog. Jet airways has suspended all its flights to and from Chandigarh till January 25, an airline official said.
Several trains passing through Punjab and Haryana were also delayed by a few hours on account of fog, which engulfed Hisar, Ambala, Karnal, Ludhina, Patiala and Amritsar. Vehicular traffic in the region was also badly hit as visibility dropped to almost zero due to fog.
Icy cold winds swept Amritsar, which braved a freezing night, with a low of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius, five degrees below the normal. Ludhiana and Patiala had a minimum temperature of 5.2 deg C and 5 deg C respectively.
In Haryana, piercing cold swept Ambala at 2.4 deg C, down by four notches, while the minimum at Karnal was 4 deg C, three below normal. Hisar and Narnaul recorded respective minimum temperatures of 5.8 deg C and 6.5 deg C..
—-PTI