STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: Flight operations at Srinagar Airport, hit by bad weather for two days, resumed partially on Saturday as visibility improved, officials said.
The flight operations have partially resumed at the airport with the improvement in visibility this afternoon, Director, Airports Authority of India (AII), Srinagar Airport, Sharad Kumar said here.
Kumar said a private airlines flight landed at the airport this afternoon, the first flight to operate at the aerodrome since Thursday afternoon.
One flight has landed, others are following, he said.
The director said four flights had to be cancelled this morning due to poor visibility.
While all the flights were cancelled on Friday, four were cancelled on Saturday morning, he said.
Kumar expressed hope that air traffic would be restored fully in the later afternoon.
“Let us hope the flights would be able to take-off from the airport. It depends upon the visibility, let us hope that improves,” he said.
Meanwhile, the minimum temperature across the Kashmir division continued to hover below the freezing point, but there was slight improvement in the night temperature at few places, even as a dense layer of fog was witnessed at places in the Valley.
The minimum temperature at most places increased slightly but it remained below the freezing point, an official of the Meteorological Department here said.
Kargil town in Ladakh region was the coldest recorded place in Jammu and Kashmir as it registered the low of minus 8.4 degrees Celsius, he said, adding though a degree up from the previous night’s minus 9.2 degrees Celsius.
The night temperature in the nearby Leh town also increased from minus 8.4 degrees Celsius yesterday to register the low of minus 7.9 degrees Celsius, the official said.
He said Srinagar — the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir — recorded the minimum temperature of minus 2.5 degrees Celsius same as that of the previous night.
The official said the night temperature in the city was four degrees below normal for this part of the season.
The MET Office has forecast isolated to scattered rainfall for a few days beginning early next week.
