Flight operations resume from Srinagar after two days
More snowfall expected on Jan 7/8
Srinagar: Vehicular traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained suspended on the second day on Thursday due to landslides and shooting stones at several places while as Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri road and Mughal road too remained shut due to snow accumulation amid inclement weather conditions across J&K.
“Jammu-Srinagar NHW (NH-44) closed for vehicular movement due to landslides/mudslides and shooting stones at several places on NH-44, Mughal road , SSG road and Sinthan road closed due to snow accumulation,” a J&K Traffic Police spokesman said this morning.
Up north, Srinagar-Leh highway also remained shut on Thursday due to heavy snowfall in the higher reaches of Ganderbal and Ladakh.
Traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway was suspended on Wednesday afternoon after shooting stones between Chanderkote and Ramban even as snow accumulation at Patnitop and Jawahar Tunnel only worsened the road condition.
Meanwhile, after some delay in the morning, flight operations resumed at the Srinagar airport on Thursday after remaining adversely affected due to snowfall, officials said here.
Some of the early morning flights were delayed due to poor visibility, an Airports Authority of India official said.
Director Srinagar International Airport, Kuldeep Singh said that all flights operated normally after improvement in weather even as morning flights got delayed due to low visibility.
He said that around 10 flights were delayed in the morning and for the last two days 87 flights were cancelled due to inclement weather.
Snowfall and low visibility across Kashmir forced cancellation of 37 of the 42 scheduled flights on Wednesday while the air traffic to and from the Srinagar airport was severely affected on Tuesday, too.
Meanwhile, KNO reported that Srinagar-Jammu highway was thrown open for the stranded vehicles after two days.
The highway was closed for vehicular movement after shooting stones and mudslides occurred along the only road connecting the Valley with the rest of the States.
In the meantime, while the MeT Office has forecast widespread snow/rain spell of moderate to heavy intensity till January 08, the minimum temperature in most places of Kashmir stayed close to the freezing point as the residents continue to experience warmer than expected nights, officials said here on Thursday.
Srinagar recorded the minimum temperature of 0.3 degree Celsius, marginally down from the previous night’s 0.8 degrees Celsius, the officials said.
Gulmarg skiing resort in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 3.5 degrees Celsius — up from previous night’s 4.0 degrees Celsius.
The officials said Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius – slightly down from minus 0.4 degrees Celsius the previous night.
They said Qazigund, the gateway town to the Valley, recorded the minimum of 0.4 degrees Celsius, while the nearby south Kashmir town of Kokernag recorded a low of minus 0.7 degrees Celsius.
The mercury in Kupwara in north Kashmir settled at a low of 0.0 degrees Celsius, same as previous night.
Meanwhile, the local Meteorological department (MeT) has predicted heavy to very heavy snowfall on January 07 and 08, issuing orange alert in Kashmir.
