Agra schools close for two days as mercury dips

AGRA - Agra schools will remain closed Monday and Tuesday due to the intensive cold wave conditions in the Taj city, district magistrate Amrit Abhijat said.

With Wednesday a holiday due to Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti, there are chances that the schools will reopen only Jan 10, said a teacher Hari Dutt Sharma.

The cold wave intensified Sunday with mercury dipping to 13 degrees Celsius during the day. The weather office indicated that the minimum temperature could fall to four to five degrees Celsius in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, the flow of tourists to the Taj Mahal continued unabated.

“Till around noon hardly anything was visible in the Taj Mahal complex (Sunday), but the crowd kept swelling undaunted by the chilly conditions. The number of tourists visiting the monument has touched a record high,” said Taj Ganj hotelier Sandeep Arora.

“If there were no rail and road traffic jams due to the Gujjar agitation we would have had really a tough time handling the tourist inflow this year. All the hotels are full. The number of domestic tourists this year is fantastic,” said emporium owner Abhinav Jain.