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| Hajjis in perpetual fix | | Flights may operate from Jammu | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Nov 28: An unprecedented cold wave and thick jacket of fog have put the Hajj aspirants in a grave inconvenience despite best possible efforts of the state government to ensure their timely landing in the holy land of Saudi Arabia.
It has been third consecutive day that no Hajj flight could take off from Srinagar due to poor visibility. Even though the government has pressed all its machinery into action but those who have missed their flights are in a perpetual quandary as the planes for them would take off only after approval from the Saudi government.
If the hostile weather continued to persist in Kashmir, the government may make arrangements for taking off the flights from Jammu to Delhi or Mumbai for onward journey to Jeddah.
According to the Airport Authority officials the Directorate of Civil Aviation had changed the criterion for landing at the Srinagar airport from 1.5 km visibility to 2.2 km. the change was made at the behest of foreign pilots who were not ready to land at below 2.2 km visibility. Against this, the Indian pilots operated the flights at 1.5 km visibility which was the case last year also. If the criterion of landing was reverted to the last year the problem of cancellation of flights might not arise, said the airport officials in Srinagar.
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited Srinagar today to take stock of the situation, said that he would take up the matter with the concerned quarters in Delhi.
The Chief Minister asked the State Haj Committee to also keep an exigency plan ready for flying the pilgrims from Jammu in case the weather continued to play truant. He said pilgrims could not afford to remain stranded for long as they had to arrive in the holy land in time. He said performing Haj was more important than flying from a particular point. The cancelled flights, it was observed, could be rescheduled only after allowed by the Saudi Arabia government and depended on the availability of air corridor at Jeddah where the skies remain crowded with aircrafts arriving with pilgrims from all over the world.
A suggestion has been put forth by Director Airport Authority that the Civil Aviation Ministry be approached for installation of CAT-1 Approach Lighting facility at the Srinagar Airport to allow landing in poor visibility conditions. |
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