One dead as smog continues to disrupt daily life in Punjab

MULTAN/LAHORE: One person died and six were injured in separate road accidents in Multan and Punjab on Sunday as smog continues to disrupt daily lives of the province’s residents.

Smog has also seriously disrupted the residents’ mobility as visibility has plunged to as low as zero on routes from Multan to Khanewal.

According to the Motorway police spokesman, visibility near Lahore-Bahawalpur National Highway plunged to 50 metres while various sections of the motorway were also closed for traffic early Sunday morning. However, the routes were reopened later in the morning. 

Flight and train schedules have been affected in the province over the last three to four days due to the bad weather, presenting difficulties to passengers.

On Saturday, over 60 flights were cancelled coming to and from the provincial capital.

Multan was also blanketed by fog, forcing the delay of five flights to and from the city, including Doha, Sharjah and Dubai.

According to the Met office, the province is expected to see rain and chilly weather from tonight, after which smog is expected to decrease.

Smog in the provincial capital had crossed all the international benchmarks early this week as the lever of PM 2.5, which is termed the most dangerous pollutant in the air across the world, remained between 450ug/m3 and 500ug/m3 against the notified standards of 35ug/m3 per day.

As per World Health Organization standards, the daily average level of PM 2.5 should not be more than 10ug/m3 and aggregated annual mean 25ug/m3 in a day whereas as per a gazette notification of the Punjab government, the daily limit of PM2.5 is 15ug/m3 and aggregated annual mean 35ug/m3 per day.