Fog engulfs Punjab, disrupts air, land travel

LAHORE: The plains of Punjab continued to be engulfed in fog on Friday morning leaving the visibility level to zero at several places while affecting flight operations at Allama Iqbal Airport of Lahore, ARY News reported.

The visibility problem has also disturbed land travel as Lahore to Sheikhupura section of the motorway M-II and Faisalabad to Pindi Bhattian M-III have been closed. Moreover, the M-IV motorway has been closed at Gojra.

The visibility level goes down to zero at a number of places along the National Highway, including Mian Channu, Khaniwal, Multan and Bahawalpur. The level of visibility has been varying between 30 to 50 meters along the G.T. Road .

It was hard for drivers to pass through the national highway and motorways after visibility level dropped to zero at various points. Motorway Police warned the civilians across Punjab to avoid unnecessary travel and must use fog lights to stay away from any untoward incident.

Scores of flights have been cancelled or delayed at Allama Iqbal International Airport of Lahore due to persistent fog. The flight operations will return to normal schedule after improvement of the visibility, airport sources said.

As winter begins, the areas of northern Punjab come under a thick layer of fog affecting the daily life and vehicular traffic.

Motorways blocked and flights delayed or cancelled due to poor visibility. The thick hazy layer understood to be winter’s fog is a noxious smog carrying serious health hazards, experts say.

Smog is basically derived from the merging of two words; smoke and fog, which means that smog is a mixture of smoke and fog, created by increasing vehicular and industrial emissions.