News
Night Landing: Airliners not keen to announce flight schedule
Srinagar, Oct 11: The airline companies are not keen to announce their flight schedule for night landing at Srinagar airport, which was scheduled to commence after July.
The authorities on August 9 conducted a successful trial on Srinagar-New Delhi air-route to formally start night service by the end of the month.
However, after more than a month, the service is yet to take off at the airport.
Director Airport Authority of India, Srinagar, Sharad Kumar, told The Kashmir Monitor the airline companies have not responded to their repeated calls so far.
“We send them official communication to start the night landing of flights at Srinagar but till now there has been no response from them,” he said.
Kumar said that the infrastructure was already in place to ensure successful operating of the service.
“We have prepared the airport especially for this service. Now only the airline companies have to schedule timing of their flights for night landing,” he added.
Officials said that it took authorities seven months to develop required infrastructure for the service.
“The Instrumental Landing System (ILS) has been developed at the airport, which guides an aircraft approaching the runway to enable its safe landing. Similarly, Approaching Lighting System (ALS) has been also installed to ensure proper visibility for landing,” they said.
Sources said that the less flow of the tourists during the current season has been the main reason behind the delaying of night landing by airline companies.
“The airline companies usually cut down their flights to Kashmir when there is low passenger flow. There has been a decline in the number of visitors to Kashmir since July due to which the airline companies are not readying themselves for the service,” they said.
After frequent requests by the tourism players, the Union Minister of State Aviation, Jayant Sinha in November last year announced that night landing facility and international connectivity at Srinagar International Airport will start within next six months.
Currently, as many as 40 flights operate at Srinagar airport on average daily, which leave for many destinations of India.
Srinagar, Jan 19: Kashmir areas experienced fresh snowfall on Saturday, with the weather office forecasting more in store for the next three days.
“A western disturbance (WD) is presently active over the state under whose influence moderate to heavy snowfall is likely to occur in the valley till January 23 after which the intensity of the WD will start decreasing,” a Met Department official said here.
District administrations have set up helplines to help prevent any untoward incident due to the heavy snowfall.
Meanwhile Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan Saturday issued fresh avalanche warning for nine avalanche prone districts of Kashmir division.
The warning has been issued for the avalanche-prone areas of district Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Kargil and Leh.
As per the hand out, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir has directed the Deputy Commissioners of all these districts to advise the people living in avalanche prone areas not to venture out to avoid the loss of lives.
The Div Com also directed the concerned DC’s to take all the precautionary measures and to keep the SDRF, Police and Para-medical staff with ambulances in readiness to avert any untoward incident.
While the nightlong cloud cover increased minimum temperatures throughout the valley on Saturday, the maximum temperatures are expected to drop further, the weather official said.
Srinagar recorded minus 2.0 degrees Celsius, Pahalgam minus 4.4 and Gulmarg minus 7.0 as the minimum temperatures.
Leh town had minus 9.2 degrees Celsius and Kargil minus 18.9 as the night’s lowest temperature.
Jammu city recorded 8.3 degrees Celsius, Katra 9.1, Batote 3.9, Bannihal 2.3 and Bhaderwah 1.3 as the minimum temperatures.
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United Nations: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped that India and Pakistan will engage in a “meaningful dialogue” to resolve their issues.
The UN chief also said he has been offering his “good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that, until now, had no conditions of success.”
Guterres was speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
“I hope that the importance of both India and Pakistan is such in international affairs, I hope that the two countries will be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue,” he said.
The UN chief was responding to a question on his repeated urging of dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours.
In relation to the human rights situation, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has produced recently a very detailed report. So, the UN has clearly done its job in that regard, Guterres said to a question by a Pakistan journalist on the situation in Kashmir.
Srinagar: A joint search operation was launched by the forces and police in the commercial Hub Lal Chowk area of Srinagar on Saturday.
The search came a day after the grenade attack took place in the locality, which left a vehicle and windowpanes of some shops damaged.
Witnesses said that a large contingent of police and paramilitary troopers were deployed near the Clock Tower here while the frisking was also intensified.
They said that drones too were used during the operation.
However, a top police official said that it was a routine exercise ahead of upcoming Republic Day.