Fog across Delhi and North India for the better part of January has led to Rs 450 crore of business losses, combining those of trucking companies, the railways and airlines.
The biggest hit has been taken by road transporters, who are losing over Rs 60 crore daily due to consignments not reaching on time or getting cancelled. “Our losses are to the tune of Rs 400 crore as of now because of delay in delivery,” said G R Sannugappa, president of the All-India Motor Transport Congress, an apex body of truckers.
The fog has affected 3 million truck consignments in the past two weeks, according to Sannugappa.
Others believe the overall impact is much higher. S P Singh, coordinator, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training, said, “While some of the losses will be recovered, our estimate is that these are to the tune of Rs 800 crore.”
The railways have also faced the brunt due to cancellations and delays of passenger and goods trains. “Since January 6, the railways have cancelled around 50 passenger trains daily and lost Rs 6 lakh per train due to the cancellations,” said a senior official. With 850 trains cancelled, the losses from passenger train cancellations amount to Rs 51 crore.
The official said the average delay was anywhere between 4 and 15 hours. He estimated that as many as 30 trains would be cancelled till the end of this month.
The airlines are estimated to have suffered losses of around Rs 20-30 crore due to cancellation of 152 flights, diversion of 81 and rescheduling of 121 more since January 2, the first day of fog at Delhi airport. This does not include flights which get delayed while landing or taking off, for which no clear estimates are available. According to sources at the airport, the total number of fog hours in Delhi have been 200 since January 2. “In terms of average loss, it could be somewhere around Rs 6 lakh per aircraft cancellation and diversion,” said an executive of a low-cost carrier.
Vendors feel the heat
Vegetable vendors, head-load workers and daily wage workers have been seeing their earnings nosedive, thanks to the blanket of fog that has been descending on the northern parts of the country this month, worse than what it was in December or in recent years.
“We are forced to leave early, as the visibility is low and there are hardly any buyers after 10 pm. For the past two days, there were none coming after 9 pm,” says a vendor who plies a vegetable cart in Vaishali, Ghaziabad.
The fog has meant people deciding to end the day earlier than normal and so, there is little scope for business, says another vendor there. Fresh vegetables are available in big retail shops till at least 10 pm and that is a factor that makes the hawkers all the more redundant on a foggy night, say organisations who work with street dwellers.
In the Jama Masjid night shelter run by Aman Biradari, an NGO, the occupants are mainly street children. The 80 children, mostly beg in the area near the Old Delhi railway station. Some sell various things on the streets. All that has stopped, according to workers at this shelter.
“Winter is the worst time for those who beg or sell stuff on the streets. Without the fog, too, people keep their car windows closed. Now with the fog, no one would even see those who sell or beg on the streets,” says Vipin Kumar Rai, who deals with the urban poverty project in another NGO, Indo Global Social Service Society, a 50-year- old organisation in Delhi.
Head load workers depend for their earnings on the brisk transportation of commodities in the wholesale markets. The fog has meant a slowing of transportation, says Anwar, who works in the Jama Masjid area for Aman Biradari.
They are earning less and are coming early for their share of rented quilts (Rs 10 per piece a night) to private dealers, who do a good business in this season. Some who can afford to pay Rs 30 get a plastic sheet as their roof, besides the quilt in central parts of Delhi like Nizamuddin and Jama Masjid, says Anwar.
