The Hindu : Front Page : Parallel taxiway at airport: preliminary works begin

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Thursday, Jun 26, 2008
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Parallel taxiway at airport: preliminary works begin

V.S. Palaniappan

— File Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

Steps on: An aircraft taxiing on the runway at the Coimbatore airport.

Coimbatore: Airports Authority of India (AAI) has taken preliminary steps such as floating of tenders and finalisation of consultants to build a parallel taxiway and a new terminal building at Coimbatore Airport.

The works are expected to be completed in another 28 to 30 months.

Since none of these works require land acquisition delay is not expected. According to AAI sources, shortlisting of contractors for appointing them as consultants has begun for parallel taxiway and creation of three more parking bays at an estimated outlay of Rs. 44 crore.

Parallel taxiway will help in minimising the runway occupancy or time used by aircraft.

At present, an aircraft on touching down the airport taxies the entire runway distance and returns via the same run way to the apron for parking, says Airport Director, K. Hemalatha.

Once the parallel taxiway is completed, aircraft can use it to reach the parking bays thus leaving the runway free for another landing or take off.

The airport witnesses an average of 22 to 23 landings and take offs every day. It has five parking bays (it can accommodate six aircraft of smaller size).

This is in addition to the isolation parking bay for aircraft in distress/those with security perception.

The additional three parking bays proposed now will avoid situations such as an aircraft being asked to hover over the airport for want of space even during the peak traffic season. The runway length at the airport is close to 9,760 ft and parallel taxiway will be approximately 5,000 ft.

Similarly, works are underway to finalise the structure and architecture consultants to carry out improvements to the arrival and departure wings of the existing terminal building at an outlay of Rs. 78 crore.

The proposal included construction of another terminal building. The improvements include complete air-conditioning, provision of two aerobridges to connect passengers from the floor level to the aircraft besides four escalators and elevators. The present terminal building of 6,000 sq m would become 13,500 to 14,000 sq m.

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