Flight operation suspended at Quetta airport

QUETTA: Air connectivity has been disconnected with Balochistan while flight operations have been suspended at Quetta airport due to torrential rainfall and flash floods.

Quetta Airport has been temporarily closed for flight operations. PIA has temporarily suspended flight operations in view of the flood situation. The national airline has cancelled all flights to and from Quetta as flight operations have been suspended due to network congestion.

Airport sources say that PTCL is facing network connectivity due to which the airport operations has been suspended while there is a technical failure in the radar service.

All road and air communication has also been cut off with the provincial capital while communication lines, mobile phone, and internet services were restored after being disconnected for nearly 24 hours.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that the optical fiber cable was damaged after heavy rains and floods, due to which voice and data service was affected in Quetta, Ziarat, Khuzdar, Loralai, and Pishin districts.

The telecom regulator said that services are also affected in Chaman, Panjgur, Zhob, Qila Saifullah and Qila Abdullah, while efforts are on to restore mobile and internet services in the affected districts.

“Affected voice and data services in Balochistan have been restored,” the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on its official Twitter handle, adding that it is monitoring the situation of telecom services in the affected districts.

Affected voice and data services in Balochistan have been restored. https://t.co/Y4r00hOu9O

— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) August 26, 2022

Severe overnight rains hampered rescue efforts and caused internet and mobile phone service outages. Torrential rainfall continued to pound Quetta on Friday, leaving the city cut off from the rest of the country.

A railway bridge connecting Quetta to other parts of Pakistan collapsed near Mach area in the Bolan district in the early hours of Thursday, which also suspended trade with Afghanistan. The Dab-e-Dosti (Friendship Gate) at the Pak-Afghan border near Chaman has also been submerged due to heavy rains.

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