KO Photo by Abid Bhat
14 Flights Cancelled At Srinagar Airport, Shooting Stones Kill Driver In Ramban
Srinagar- Fresh snowfall and incessant rains on Wednesday disrupted air traffic to and from the Kashmir Valley and blocked the strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway, where a driver was killed after his vehicle came under shooting stones.
Light to moderate snowfall was recorded at most places of Kashmir while the higher reaches witnessed heavy snowfall, officials said. They said Gulmarg received 3 ft of fresh snowfall till 1800 hours, Tangmarg 1.5ft, Srinagar 4mm of rain and 1 cm snow, Kokernag 20cm snow, Pahalgam 24cm of snow, Banihal 20mm rain, Batote 25mm rain, Qazigund 15cm, and Kupwra 3.3mm of rain.
Fresh snowfall in most places of Kashmir also brought down visibility to 500 metres, affecting air traffic to and from the Valley.
All flights at the Srinagar airport were delayed. Although snow accumulation was not much at the airport, low visibility — which was down to 500 metres — affected flight operations, officials said.
“68 flights were scheduled to operate today. We could operate only 54,” officials said, adding, “14 flights were cancelled due to bad weather in the morning.”
The flight operations started after the visibility improved, they added.
Incessant rains also triggered shooting stones at a few places in Ramban district leading to the closure of the vital highway.
An official of the traffic department said the shooting stones from the hillocks overlooking the highway at a couple of places between Charkote and Banihal forced suspension of traffic.
Shooting stones rolled down at Magarkote area of the Ramban district during wee hours , hitting a tanker (JK02BL-8177) and truck (JK18A- 6968), the official said.
He said that the driver of the truck identified as Muneeb Tak of Supat Kulgam died on the spot. The two injured persons were immediately evacuated to Sub district hospital Banihal.
They were identified as Gopal son of Bayant Lal of Peera Ramban and Rajinder Kumar son of Prem Singh of Batote Ramban. One of them is the driver of the oil tanker, the official said.
Meanwhile, the minimum temperatures improved across the Valley.
The mercury in Srinagar settled at a low of zero degree Celsius — up from minus 2.3 degrees Celsius. Qazigund, the gateway to the Kashmir Valley, registered a low of minus 0.2 degrees Celsius, the officials said.
According to the traffic department, there were some incidents of shooting stones amid rains at some places along the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, but the traffic was through.
It also advised people not to take the highway between Nashri and Banihal till the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra passed through.
“In view of the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Ramban towards Banihal, no vehicular movement shall be allowed from Qazigund towards Banihal-Ramban and from Nashri towards Ramban-Banihal,” the traffic department said.
Kokernag in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 0.7 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature in Kupwara settled at minus 0.6 degrees Celsius.
In Gulmarg, the minimum temperature was minus 4.6 degrees Celsius up from minus 9.5 degrees Celsius. It was the coldest place in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pahalgam recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.6 degrees Celsius, up six notches from the previous night.
Meanwhile, the meteorological department forecast a brief spell of rain and snowfall on Thursday morning and mainly dry weather on January 27 and 28.
“On January 26, the weather is expected to be generally cloudy with the possibility of a brief spell of light rain and snow in the morning hours,” a MeT official said.
He said on January 27-28, mainly dry weather (80%) was expected while there is possibility of light to moderate snow/rain likely from 29th night -30 ( 60%).
The MeT department urged people living or commuting in snowbound areas not to venture out, unless in an emergency. He said there are possibilities of avalanches as hilly areas of J&K and Kargil district of Ladakh have already received very heavy snowfall.
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