Trains and flight schedules were affected owing to poor visibility. Not a single flight landed in Patna on Friday. Several long distance trains were either cancelled or re-scheduled due to fog.

With no sun in sight for the second consecutive day on Friday, the difference between minimum and maximum temperature was less in Patna. The state capital experienced maximum temperature of just 12.4 degrees, around 11 degrees below normal. The visibility levels in Patna dropped to 50 metres.

With Christmas vacation rush at its peak passengers are finding it difficult to return after their holidays. Professor Shahnawaz Mehmood, Assistant Director, Mewat Engineering College, who was in Patna on vacation, had to pre-pone his planned return to Delhi from Dec 30 to Dec 29 because he had to reach his college anyhow on Jan 1. He had to cancel his ticket of Dec 30 as he was not sure whether his train would reach Delhi on Dec 31. “It took 26 hours for me to reach Patna last week when fog was not so dense. So I never wanted to take risk and that too when I am travelling with family,” he told BiharTimes.

The situation is more or less same for other train and plane passengers too.

As fog has become an annual feature of a sort now people have started utilizing winter vacation and prefer to remain at home.

Meanwhile, the government has claimed that it is organizing around 500 bonfires in public squares across the State to provide people relief from the chilly weather. In Patna, 35 bonfires have been arranged.