Intermittent rains and snowfall continued across Kashmir on Wednesday affecting air traffic at the Srinagar International Airport and leading to the cancellation of flights due to poor visibility.
An official said that flight operations have not been possible at Srinagar airport till afternoon due to inclement weather. “The resumption of air traffic would depend on the weather conditions,” he said.
The suspension of air traffic has resulted in hundreds of tourists, who had arrived here on New Year, getting stranded in the valley. “A large number of tourists had arrived in Kashmir to celebrate the New Year and were planning to return home now. (But) due to the snowfall tourists intending to travel by air have been stranded since Tuesday,” he said.
It has been snowing in most places of the valley intermittently over the past two days, but the arterial Srinagar-Jammu national highway was open for vehicular traffic till Wednesday afternoon, an official of the Traffic Department said.
He said motorists have been advised to exercise caution while traveling on the national highway in view of the snowfall and threat of avalanches.
While fresh snowfall resulted in a sharp increase in minimum temperature across the valley, it crippled normal life with most of the shops and other business establishments remaining closed and only skeletal traffic plying on the roads due to slippery conditions, reports said.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of ‘Chillai-Kalan’ - the 40-day harshest winter period when a cold wave grips the region and the temperature drops considerably leading to the freezing of water bodies.
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