Disrupted by snow, air traffic restored as weather improves

Srinagar, January 9

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Air traffic to and from Kashmir was restored on late Saturday afternoon after several flights were cancelled in the morning due to fresh snowfall in Srinagar and some other parts of the Valley, officials said.

7 days on, Srinagar-Jammu NH shut

• The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway remained closed for traffic on the seventh day on Saturday
• Officials say while the highway was cleared on Friday and stranded traffic was allowed to move, there has been no fresh movement of vehicles yet

“The flight operations resumed at the airport late afternoon and many flights arrived and departed from here,” an official of the Airports Authority of India said. He said air traffic was restored after weather improved in the Kashmir valley and the runway at the airport was cleared off the snow.

Flights cancelled

• On Saturday morning, the flight operations at the Srinagar airport were affected because of accumulation of snow on the runway
• Several flights were cancelled, while many others were delayed due to bad weather and poor visibility

Earlier in the morning, the flight operations were affected because of accumulation of snow on the runway.

Several flights were cancelled, while many others were delayed due to bad weather and poor visibility.

The air traffic to and from the Valley was also affected earlier this week. It remained suspended for four days from Sunday the wake of heavy snowfall and was restored on Thursday.

Srinagar and some other parts of Kashmir received fresh snowfall on Saturday and minimum temperature dropped across the Valley, officials said. The fresh snowfall began early in the morning.

The Valley had received snowfall for four consecutive days earlier in the week. The officials said Srinagar recorded four inches of snow till 8.30 am. In south Kashmir, Kulgam recorded five inches of snow, Anantnag three, Shopian three and Pulwama four. Bandipora, in the north, received two inches of snow and central Kashmir’s Budgam and Ganderbal districts recorded three inches each, the officials said.

There were no reports of snowfall at the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir and Pahalgam tourist resort in the south.

The MeT office had forecast very light rain or snowfall at isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, even as it had said there was no forecast of any major snowfall. It had said the weather was likely to stay mainly dry till January 14.— PTI