Staff Reporter
Lahore
Dense fog continues adversely affecting routine life in the plain areas of Punjab on Saturday, with road, rail and air travel again disrupted with people hoping for rain to get some respite. As far as Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport is concerned, officials had to suspend operations after visibility was reduced to 10 meters only with a total of 10 flights cancelled and another 24 delayed so far.
It is a daily routine to suspend flight operation at the airport in recent days, but Saturday has proved to be one of the worst because of fog density. Meanwhile, there is hours-long delay for the trains coming from Karachi and Quetta with the arrival of Shah Hussain Express delayed by three hours and 20 minutes, Karachi Express by two hours and 50 minutes, and around two hours in the case of Pak Business, Karakorum Express and Jaffar Express.
On the other hand, M-2 (Lahore-Islamabad Motorway) was closed for all kinds of traffic from Lahore to Kot Momin and M-3 (Lahore-Abdul Hakeem Motorway) from the provincial capital to Rajana. The same was the case with Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad Motorway. But it was Lahore-Sialkot Motorway which had be closed on Friday night just over two hours after sunset as dense fog engulfed the region.
Similarly, traffic on other highways and roads, including the GT Road, was moving at a snail’s pace with Gujrat, Narowal, Sialkot and Gujranwala among the worst affected areas.
