Since many flights had been delayed to inclement weather conditions prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar airport authorities informed that the process for installation of Category II Instrument Landing System (ILS) will begin in April this year and will be completed by November.
ILS is a radio based navigation system that helps the planes to land during night hours and bad weather, reportedly.
A spokesperson from the Srinagar airport said that they hope the visibility requirement will reduce from 900 M to 500 M from next winters.
Many were cancelled due to bad weather and flights would witness poor visibility due to bad weather conditions in past two days.
On Tuesday when none of the 42 flights could take off, former J&K Chief Minister and NC vice president, Omar Abdullah said that the airport had no landing aids that enable runway to remain open when visibility dips. Further Omar said that tourists had to suffer a lot due to the cancellation of flights who had to sit all day outside the terminal and seeing their flights getting cancelled and had to suffer lots of trouble due to this.
It is pertinent to mention that moderate to heavy snowfall occurred in the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Thursday as well as the weather office has forecast inclement weather till January 9. On Wednesday, parts of Jammu and Kashmir experienced light rainfall and snowfall.
According to the India Meteorological Department predicted on Wednesday, “Precipitation observed (in cm): Jammu & Kashmir: Batote & Banihal-4 each, Gulmarg & Katra3 each, Pahalgaon & Qazi Gund-2 each, Kupwara, Baderwah & Jammu-1 each”.
