Rajpura : Dense fog has been leading to frequent traffic disruptions on the Delhi-Amritsar highway for the past several days. Situation goes almost chaotic during peak traffic hours in the morning and evening. Several accidents have been reported on this busy stretch of the highway so far. Two persons lost lives in an accident last week. Commuters say there are not enough ambulances to deal with such situations and even the police patrolling is not adequate on the highway. Traffic police officials maintain that rescue operations also get affected in winters as reaching the spot becomes difficult due to fog. “Traffic often gets disrupted due to fog during morning and evening hours. Two-wheeler riders are the most vulnerable to accidents in such situations,” said Jaswinder Singh, a resident of ITI Chowk, Rajpura. “Visibility is severely hit due to fog in remote open areas. Sometimes it gets reduced to just around 50 feet, thereby increasing the chances of accidents,” he added. Traffic police officials at Sirhind said poor visibility during evening hours made drivers switch on headlights. “Many people drive vehicles at high beam, making it difficult for drivers coming from the opposite direction to see properly. Few drivers use fog lamps and defoggers,” said an official. In charge of the traffic education cell at Fatehgarh Sahib Sub-Inspector Rajesh Kumar said though the department had been trying to educate commuters to drive slow, very few people obeyed such instructions and the traffic rules. Besides road traffic, rail traffic has also been hit in the area due to bad weather conditions. Many trains are running behind schedule. Railway officials at Sirhind and Rajpura said passenger trains were the worst-affected. These were running five to 10 hours behind schedule. The Bandra-Amritsar Deluxe train was running 17 hours behind schedule.
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