Thick fog has spurred mercury further down in Multan and rest of South Punjab, disturbing life in Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Khanewal, Vehari, Lodhran, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Jhang, Layyah, Bhakkar and Mianwali and adjacent cities, here on Tuesday. Southern Punjab is surrounded by thick fog these days, causing cancellation and delay of flights and trains for indefinite period, while the daily routine has also been blown a hard hit, said the meteorological office.
It said that the wave of misty weather would prevail over South Punjab for at least 6 to 7 days to come, while the humidity in air was recorded at 100 percent. The met office has also expected rise in the intensity of winter weather and thickness of fog in next 24 hours.
A highway policeman said the visibility on many parts of highway has climbed down to 'zero', leading to head-on collisions. On Monday, five persons including three special children were killed when their van collided with another vehicle. Mostly vehicles have either been halted at motels or advised to take alternative ways. The visibility has also dropped down to zero level on Highway from Dera Ghazi Khan to Rojhan and Multan to Jhang via Kabirwala, multiplying sighting problems for traffics.
To top it all, 8-10 hours of load shedding has continued in the city for unlimited time periods. Load shedding continued throughout the night on Monday and entire Southern Punjab plunged into dark for 12 hours. Apart from the scheduled load shedding by Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco), electricity supply was also disconnected by the National Grid from Islamabad. The shortfall in demand and supply of the power remained 675MW and the load shedding schedule was 5 and 7 hours in the urban and rural areas respectively, as claimed by Mepco.
Talking to this scribe, CEO Mepco blamed thick fog for the load shedding. He said the transmission lines and the discos in the transmission system got flashed due to fog and winters, resulting in the unscheduled power outages throughout the country. He further said the Mepco teams were alert and took swift action as and when an unusual situation took place, but naturally it took time to restore the system, he added.