MOHALI: The to and fro air connectivity at Chandigarh airport was restored on Saturday after heavy rains lashed Tricity and surrounding areas bringing much relief for the airline carriers. However, one flight was cancelled and four others were delayed in their departure by over two hours.The visibility which had dropped down to 1400 mts and below in the past two days improved substantially to reach beyond 2600 mts after rains, said airport official Deepesh Joshi.The overnight rain brought down the dust cover which had engulfed the atmosphere over city for the last two days. All flights were grounded at the Chandigarh International Airport because of poor visibility. Deepesh Joshi said that on Saturday morning all flights were operated as per the schedule including international flights.He said that one flight was cancelled and four other delayed on Saturday. Go Air Srinagar flight G8-911 was cancelled whereas Jet Airways flight 9W-471 arrived one hour late and the same flight departed late by 56 minutes. Similarly, Air Alliance CD-807 arrived one hour late from Kullu and the same flight departed late by 56 minutes to Kullu.Air India flight from Leh arrived 4:30 hours late as it departed late by 4:20 hours late from Leh. Go Air flight G8-913 from Ahmedabad also had delayed arrival by over 2 hours. However, as announced on Friday, the Air India Express operated its Sharjah flight from Delhi instead of Chandigarh on Saturday.On Friday, 27 flights were grounded including the much-hyped Heli taxi to Shimla and the two international flights were operated from Delhi.Passengers bound for Dubai were transferred to Delhi via road. Meanwhile, the weather turned pleasant and the visibility improved on Saturday morning as Chandigarh and its nearby areas in Punjab and Haryana were lashed by overnight rains, bringing much relief from the dust cover and pollution.However, the sky remained overcast with intermittent showers lashing the tri city during the day. In the past two days, Chandigarh and surrounding areas witnessed a dusty weather throughout the day with poor visibility.The city saw the highest ever concentration of 2.5 particulate matter, a fine pollutant that can reach the lungs directly. A Chandigarh pollution control committee observatory measured 2.5 particulate matter at 572 microgram per cubic metre of air on an average on Friday morning. On Thursday, it was 360 microgram per cubic metre.The normal value of 2.5 particulate matter is 60 micrograms per cubic metre for a 24-hour period. Experts at the observatory said it was the highest ever in the city.

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