After remaining grounded for four days during a fresh spell of snowfall between January 3-6, Srinagar Airport authorities on Wednesday announced the flight operations would begin from January 7 to clear the rush of stranded passengers.
The information was shared by the Srinagar Airport Authorities along with images of ongoing snow clearing operations.
Large number of tourists were stranded in different parts of Kashmir valley after a fresh spell of snowfall grounded all the incoming and outgoing flights since January 3. As the weather conditions improved partially on Wednesday the snow clearing operations were launched on war footing to clear the runway for flight operations. The Twitter handle of Srinagar Airport posted a tweet which stated, “The Airport Authority of India executives at Srinagar Airport have been working very hard in coordination with Beacon staff and continuously monitoring the area to avoid snow accumulation in apron area keeping in view that stranded passengers may reach to their destination “
Ironically, travelers hoping to visit the cold desert region of Ladakh may have to wait a little longer.
The snow clearing operations in the newly created Union Territory of Ladakh were being done manually at an altitude of 9800 ft above sea level.
This interesting piece of information was shared by the Airport Director, Leh Airport himself.
In a series of tweets, the Airport Director said,”At 9,800 ft above sea level, Leh Airport woke up to a snow covered valley. With temperatures as low as -12°C, the snow removal process from the apron of KBR Airport is done manually in extreme temperatures”. Posting a picture of an ongoing inspection visit, the Airport Director in his second tweet said, “AAI Leh officers in the process of inspecting snow removal from Leh Airport apron so that flights can be operated. Snow removal at Leh Airport is done manually presently. Talks for procurement of snow removal machines at headquarter level”.
According to the MeT department the temperature in Leh hovered around -10 degrees celsius on Wednesday. “Day's maximum temperature would hover at -7°c, while minimum temperature is predicted to be -14°c”, the MeT department report said.