Bhogi: 20 flights delayed, one dies due to smog

Airport sources here said more than 20 flights, including incoming flights from Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Singapore and Dubai, and flight leaving Chennai for Port Blair, Mumbai, Tiruchy, New Delhi and Bengaluru were delayed by two hours due to poor visibility. The sources added that three flights bound for Bengaluru, Mumbai and Sharjah were cancelled. Bhogi is celebrated in Tamil Nadu a day ahead of the harvest festival of Pongal, where old items like mats and brooms are put to fire in a symbolic gesture of doing away with the old and ushering in the new.

Meanwhile, a 30-year-old private firm employee rammed his two-wheeler into an electric pole and died due to the smog reducing the visibility on Monday. The deceased, Ashwin Kumar (30) of Adambakkam, was returning home after visiting his friends in Pallikaranai. “When he tried to enter inner ring road from Velachery flyover service road, he rammed his two-wheeler into an electric pole as smoke from Bhogi celebration blinded his vision,” said the police. With grievous injuries, he died on the spot. The police said that he was married only two years ago.