A sudden storm that swept across Varanasi on Wednesday evening brought two trees down on the overhead electric line of the main track at Cantt railway station, left water standing in several neighbourhoods and ended with an IndiGo flight to Bengaluru being cancelled at Babatpur. The weather turned at about 6:30 pm, after a hot and humid day, with strong winds, thunder and lightning arriving within minutes.
By one local measure, winds reached up to about 60 kmph and the city received more than 10 mm of rain in roughly an hour and a half. People caught on the roads ducked into shops and doorways as the lightning kept up, and traffic slowed on several stretches.
At Cantt station, two trees snapped near platform 9 and fell onto the overhead equipment, or OHE, of the main line, breaking the wire. Movement on that track was hit for a while. The line is mainly used for sending out goods trains, and the railway's electrical team reached the spot, cleared the fallen trees and repaired the wire.
No official railway statement on delays had been issued by Thursday morning, so the exact effect on passenger services is not known. Anyone with a rescheduled train journey should confirm its status through the railway's enquiry service before heading out.
At Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, the storm hit just as an IndiGo flight from Bengaluru was due. Airport Director Puneet Gupta said flight 6E 6596, scheduled to land at 5:45 pm, reached Varanasi airspace around 6:15 pm but could not be cleared to land straight away because visibility had dropped sharply in the wind and rain. The aircraft circled for about half an hour and touched down safely at 6:45 pm.
The same plane was meant to turn around as flight 6E 6597 to Bengaluru. That return flight was cancelled because the pilot and cabin crew had reached the limit of their permitted duty hours, and by then no replacement crew could be flown in from another city.
The airline then offered alternatives to the 167 passengers booked on the flight, according to airport officials. Some were put on IndiGo's 6E 499 to Bengaluru, some were routed through Mumbai and Hyderabad, some moved to a flight the next day, and some chose a full refund. Gupta said the delay was caused by the weather, which pushed the crew past their duty time, and that the airline made arrangements for the passengers.
The rules behind the cancellation are known as Flight Duty Time Limitation, or FDTL. Set by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, they cap how long pilots and crew can stay on duty so that tired crews are not flying, and airlines cannot override them even when a flight is running late for reasons beyond anyone's control.
It was not the first stormy evening to upset flights at Babatpur this month. During the recent evening storm that sent three flights to Lucknow, aircraft could not land in Varanasi at all. Passengers flying out this month are also adjusting to IndiGo's new fuel charge on Varanasi tickets.
Back in the city, water collected on roads in Mahmoorganj, Kakarmatta, Durgakund, Assi, Samneghat and Manduadih, making the evening commute hard for residents and visitors alike. A tree came down near Sigra police station and blocked the road towards Maldahiya and IP Mall, and several trees fell inside the BHU campus. Even so, the Ganga aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat went ahead through the storm and rain.
The Varanasi Municipal Corporation, in posts on X late on Wednesday night, said improved drainage and continuous monitoring had kept the Bhelupur area free of waterlogging during the rain. The corporation also said drainage work is under way at Girjaghar, Fatman Road and Piplani tiraha to give those spots a permanent fix. Waterlogging in older lanes has come up after short spells before too, as with the Ward 86 lanes from Hankar Tola to Kalimahal last month.
The rain brought a sharp drop in temperature. After the storm, the night temperature fell from above 30 degrees Celsius to about 23 degrees. The district's maximum stood at 32 degrees, 1.9 degrees below normal, and the minimum at 21.6 degrees, 2.1 degrees below normal.
Dr Atul Kumar Singh, senior scientist at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Lucknow, said the weather has shifted since the monsoon withdrew from the state. A yellow alert for rain had already been issued for Wednesday and Thursday, he said, with moist easterly winds meeting drier westerly winds over parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. More spells of rain with gusty winds are possible on Thursday, according to the met centre.
With more rain possible, anyone flying out of Babatpur on Thursday would do well to check flight status with the airline before leaving home. Avoid parking or standing under old trees when the wind picks up, and report any snapped or hanging wires to the power department rather than going near them.
