NH opens for one-way traffic after 5 days, air traffic resumes;High danger avalanche warning issued

STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: Even as the administration has issued a high danger avalanche warning across the Kashmir Valley, the arterial Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was thrown open for one-way traffic after five days, while air traffic resumed from here on Sunday with extra flight operated to clear the passenger backlog.
“The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway has been opened for traffic and vehicles have been allowed to ply from Jammu towards Srinagar,” an official of the Traffic Control department told PTI.
He said following the improvement in the weather, the highway was cleared off snow and debris left by landslides and one-way traffic was allowed on Sunday morning. The nearly 300-km road was closed for traffic in the wake of snowfall on Tuesday. It remained shut for five days, choking the supply of essentials to the Valley where prices of these commodities have more than doubled in the past week. Kashmir experienced fresh snowfall on Tuesday which continued intermittently yesterday as well.
The snowfall also hit flight operations at Srinagar airport here. While morning flights were delayed yesterday, all afternoon flights were cancelled due to snowfall. This morning as well, the flights have been delayed, an official at the airport said. Meanwhile, most areas of Kashmir received rains and snowfall yesterday, but the weather stayed mainly dry for most part of the night.
Leh in Ladakh region was the coldest recorded place in Kashmir division last night even as the minimum temperature there improved. The mercury in Leh settled at minus 5.2 degrees Celsius up nearly five degrees from the previous night’s low of minus 10.1 degrees Celsius, an official of the MET department said.
Gulmarg in north Kashmir Baramulla district was the second coldest place with a minimum of minus 4 degrees Celsius.
Other places, including the summer capital Srinagar, also witnessed night temperatures around the freezing point, the official said.
The MET Office has forecast scattered rainfall or snow over two days from today, after which, it said, there is possibility of fairly widespread rainfall or snow on January 31.
“Air traffic resumed on Sunday and flight operations took place,” Director, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Srinagar Airport, Sharad Kumar said.
He said the flight operations at the airport took place normally except for some delays. “There was some delay for few flights but there were no cancellations,” he said. Kumar said an additional flight was operated to clear the passenger backlog.
“Air India operated an additional flight at 5:30 pm on Sunday to clear the backlog,” he said.
The air traffic had first remained suspended at the airport for three days due to snowfall in the Valley on Tuesday. While it resumed on Friday and all flights operated, eight flights were cancelled at the airport on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Divisional Administration, Kashmir has issued a high danger avalanche warning valid for next 24-hours from 29th January to 30th January, 2017for avalanche prone areas in the division.
The high danger avalanche warning from 29th January (1700 hrs) 30th January, 2017 (1700 hrs) exists for avalanche prone slopes in Kupwara, Bandipora, Baramulla, Ganderbal, Kulgam and Budgam and Kargil districts of Kashmir Division.
Accordingly, the people have advised not to venture in avalanche prone areas and to keep clearing snow depositions from roof tops of their houses/bunkers to avoid damages.