As winter intensifies, a blanket of dense fog covered several parts of Assam including Guwahati, with a considerable dip in the temperature.
This weather phenomenon has been prevalent across various parts of Assam and has extended to other northeastern states.
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) at Guwahati has issued a three-day alert, starting January 9, for dense to very dense fog for several districts in the state.
The dense fog notably disrupted flight operations at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport on January 10, causing overcrowding at the passenger terminal and leading to delays in Guwahati-bound flights.
Since the onset of winters, Assam has seen many road accidents, including pile-ups, due to foggy conditions, and these have left several people dead or injured.
In the latest major accident because of low visibility due to fog, 12 people were killed and around 30 injured on January 3 in a head-on collision between a coal-laden truck and a bus on the National Highway-715 in Assam’s Golaghat.
The truck was coming from the direction of Jorhat and on the wrong side as a portion of the four-lane highway was damaged. The bus was on the right track, an official of the Dergaon police station said. He added that “there was fog and both the vehicles were speeding”.
During foggy months, drivers should refrain from speeding avoid abrupt mid-road stops unless absolutely necessary, use indicators and should also consciously opt for driving on low-beam as high-beam is reflected back by fog.
