Snow hits life in Leh, poor visibility delays flights

Our Correspondent

Leh, December 20

Leh town and adjoining areas received a fresh spell of snow early on Friday morning for the second consecutive day, affecting normal life and surface and air connectivity.

Snowfall, followed by poor visibility, delayed the in-bound Leh flights for two hours in the morning hours, but later only one flight out of the five scheduled flights in the Delhi-Leh sector was able to land at the Khushok Bakula Rinpoche airport, Leh, in the afternoon at 12.20 pm after five hours of delay in its operation.

The Director, Airports Authority of India, Leh, Sonam Norbu, said, “Out of the five departures scheduled today, only one flight GoAir was operated and the rest four flights, including one flight of Spicejet and three Airindia, were cancelled for Friday.”

The cancellations left hundreds of passengers stranded at Leh and New Delhi. Also, the operations of the Indian Air Force (IAF) flight which daily operates three to four aircraft were affected today.

An official at the Technical Airport, IAF, in Leh said the authorities had been forced to cancel two ILC 76 aircraft and C17 aircraft scheduled for today from Chandigarh to Leh due to snowfall in the morning hours followed by cloudy weather.

Traffic via Khardong la and Changla, which connect Nobra valley and Siachen Glacier in the northern Ladakh and Tangtse and Nyoma in the eastern Ladakh, respectively, remained off despite the pass kept open for traffic.

An official at the police control room, Leh, who monitors the traffic on both these passes said people stayed away on playing these passes due to snowfall in the morning hours.