Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 15

Residents woke up to a dense fog cover, first of the season, on Wednesday morning, which resulted in huge inconvenience for commuters.

While the city areas had a relatively better visibility, in rural areas the fog remained till 12:30 pm.

As it was the first day of the month of Poh, as per the Punjabi calendar, a large numbers of people were out on roads to visit religious places to observe ‘sangrand’.

The month of ‘Poh’ is considered the coldest month of the year.

With the visibility constrained to only a few metres, the commuters had a hard time reaching their destination.

A bank employee posted in Tarn Taran said: “Usually it takes me around 45 minutes to reach my workplace, but today it took one-and-a-half hours.”

Commuters said the absence of proper road infrastructure in rural areas to guide drivers through fog is the biggest threat to the safety of commuters. The absence of proper fog lights and tail lights on private vehicles is another major cause of accidents as the other drivers fail to spot such vehicles on time.

Rajinder Singh, a retired Roadways driver, said: “Never switch on the music system in your car if there is fog. It is a major distraction for the driver, as he cannot listen to the sound of vehicles which do not have fog lights.” He said drivers should avoid overtaking vehicles going ahead.

The white markings on the side of the road which help drivers stay on the road during fog are not available on most of the link roads connecting rural areas with the city.

“Many people travel on these link roads from villages for work. Others travel from city to villages daily. If the roads have proper markings and signs, it would help daily commuters,” said Charanjit Kaur, a government employee.