Fog at Gangasagar holds up pilgrims for hours

Though both the services resumed after 11 am,traffic congestion was high leaving many pilgrims disappointed.

On Wednesday too,services were affected for 3-4 hours with around 1,500 buses stranded in the Diamond Harbour stretch.

Around 20,000 pilgrims remained stuck on Thursday as the stretch from Chimaguri to Namkhaha is only operational for ferry services during the day since there is no night navigation facility. The other stretch from Kochuberia to Lot 8,which works round the clock,could not provide navigational opportunities after the sun set due to low tide and desiltation.

Domestic,international flights diverted from city airport
Three international flights and as many domestic flights had to be diverted from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport covered with dense fog since Wednesday night. Heavy fog engulfed the runway from 11pm on Wednesday to about 5:30 am on Thursday. “There was normal visibility for a brief period between 6 am and 7:30 am on Thursday,” said an AAI official.

Lufthansa’s Frankfurt-Kolkata flight that arrived around 1 am on Thursday could not land here and was diverted to Hyderabad. Similarly,Air-India Express’ Singapore-Kolkata flight was diverted to Hyderabad while Air-India’s Jeddah-Kolkata flight was re-routed to Nagpur.

However,two other international flights which arrived before 11.30 pm could land taking advantage of the CAT II Instrumental Landing System at the airport,sources said.

Among the domestic flights,Indigo’s Mumbai-Kolkata flight was sent back to Mumbai. Kingfisher’s Chennai-Kolkata flight was diverted to Hyderabad. Sahara Airlines’ Bengaluru-Kolkata flight returned to Bengaluru as it could not land here. Many other domestic flights were delayed and normal flight operations could resume only after 10am on Thursday.