Cold waves in northern India claim 195 lives

NEW DELHI/ UTTAR PRADESH/ BIHAR/ PUNJAB/ HARYANA - The cold waves have disturbed normal life for the sixth consecutive day and the death toll due to the extreme harsh weather is now reported to be over 195.

Around 31 more deaths were reported from the various districts in Uttar Pradesh with Agra recording a temperature of 5.4 degree Celsius, the coldest in the state.

A foggy Thursday morning brought bad news for air travelers in Delhi as round 35 flights have been hit with runway visibility dropping down to barely 50 meters.

The national flights affected are Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Leh, Delhi- Bangalore, Jaipur-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Ahmedabad, and Guwahati-Imphal.

Several international flights have also been affected. The international flights coming from Singapore, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, London, Istanbul, Tehran and Beijing along with eight outgoing international flights have been delayed.

Several trains have also been hit due to the foggy weather. Six trains have been cancelled and 46 others have been delayed.

The office of the Meteorological department has warned of a thick fog in the capital from mid-week and there are reports that the foggy weather will continue to cover Delhi for at least four hours on Thursday morning.

Seven more deaths were reported from Bihar taking the death toll in the state to 21.

Earlier on Wednesday, around 157 deaths were reported from across the country.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Tuesday ordered all schools to be closed for three days in view of the cold.

Visibility was reduced to a few meters in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi on Thursday morning.

In Punjab, all schools have been closed till January 8 due to the cold.

All incoming and outgoing flights from Chandigarh stood cancelled on Wednesday.

Railways have cancelled around 19 trains till January 31 due to the prevailing foggy weather conditions in north India. (ANI)