Bad weather forces cancellation of 12 flights to and fro Srinagar airport

Twelve flights to and fro the Srinagar airport were cancelled due to bad weather conditions, officials of the Airport Authority of India said, as most parts of Kashmir experienced a fresh spell of snowfall on Friday.

Out of 25 scheduled flights for the day, only 13 operated to and fro the Srinagar airport in the morning while the rest 12 flights were cancelled later in the day due to bad weather, they said.

Srinagar experienced intermittent light snowfall and rains in the afternoon, while the high altitude areas of Kashmir witnessed moderate snowfall, the fourth of this season so far.

The adverse weather conditions also forced the suspension of traffic on the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway around 5.30 pm, leaving thousands of Valley-bound vehicles stranded.

Jawahar Tunnel the gateway to Kashmir recorded about six inches of snow by this evening, a traffic department official said.

The snow clearance operation is going on to make the arterial road trafficable as early as possible, he added.