The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Bhogi-fuelled smog delays flights

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Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Bhogi-fuelled smog delays flights

Special Correspondent

Reduced visibility makes driving a harrowing experience

— Photo: Ananth Krishnan

Hold-up: The schedule of several flights to and from Chennai went haywire on Monday.

CHENNAI: Departing and arriving flights at the Chennai airport were delayed by more than three hours on Monday morning as smog caused by ‘bhogi’ fires burning across the city severely reduced visibility in the skies.

The airport was effectively shut down between 6 a.m. and 8.45 a.m., and officials said that the disruptions this year were “much worse” than in the last couple of years.

“We did not see this level of disruption last year,” an official said.

“The levels of burning have not decreased, and the cold weather has made the effects of smog worse.”

The smog set in at around 6 a.m., reducing visibility to around 300 metres, which made it impossible for flights to take off or land. The skies cleared up by around 9 a.m., allowing normal flight operations to resume. But by then, more than 30 domestic and international departures had been delayed, and several arriving flights were diverted to Bangalore.

“We usually face some delays because of fog during this time of year, but it’s the smoke that causes a major problem,” an airport official said. “While the police have tried to curb burning in areas around the airport, smoke drifts in from other areas. The burning of rubber is the main problem as the heavy carbon content takes a much longer time to dissipate than fog.”

The after-effects of the early morning disruptions lasted until the early afternoon, as returning flights from Mumbai, Coimbatore, Bangalore and Hyderabad were all delayed by three or four hours because of the late arrivals of outbound flights from Chennai.

A senior pilot said airlines needed to plan their schedules better to minimise the level of disruptions, by not scheduling flights during times when disruptions were likely. “Airlines should be aware of this problem as this happens year after year,” he said. “This is just poor planning. They should plan their schedules so flights will not have to be diverted, but schedules are made by people in New Delhi or Mumbai who have no knowledge of local weather phenomena.”

Traffic hit

The scene was no different on the roads with motorists and pedestrians finding it difficult to move as smog reduced visibility. The problem remained till around 8.30 a.m. making driving a harrowing experience.

Several people, who were on the road early in the day, said they witnessed near-miss accident situations.

Despite overnight patrolling and awareness campaigns to avoid Bhogi bonfires, many people were seen burning waste and discarded items in different parts of the city.

According to Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board officials, their campaign against burning rubber, tyres and plastics had paid off.

“There was a lot of improvement this year. We had 25 patrol teams that included police who patrolled the streets from 10 p.m. till 7 a.m. on Monday. We seized tyres from a location. In all other places it was generally mats, old clothes and paper,” a senior Board official said.

A release from the Board said there was a reduction of 8 per cent Total Suspended Particulate Matter, whereas there was an increase in the levels of oxides of nitrogen and Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter. But the overall status of gaseous pollutants were within the prescribed standards.

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