The Hindu : New Delhi News : Trial run on new IGI runway soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Trial run on new IGI runway soon

Staff Reporter

Coming soon: Work on full swing for the new runway of IGI Airport in Delhi.

NEW DELHI: The trial run on the third runway – one of the longest in Asia – coming up at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here will begin from August 21.

The first aircraft to land on the new runway will be that of national carrier Air India. The flight will have no passengers on board. Union Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel is expected to be present on the inaugural day.

“We are still working out the details on how many trial days we should have. It depends on the Air Traffic Control services. They will decide and let us know. Commercial operations should begin by this month-end,” Chief Development Officer I. Prabhakara Rao told reporters on Monday.

Claiming that the runway was ready seven months ahead of schedule, he said runway 11-29 will be among the longest in Asia at 4,430 metres.

“The runway is 75 metres wide, including its shoulders. It has been constructed with a full length parallel taxiway and a cross taxiway to connect it to the existing airport. The taxiway network to support the new runway is 15 km long,” he added.

The third runway has been built to Code F standards and is long, wide and strong enough to accommodate super-sized aircraft like the Airbus A380. The runway is equipped with CAT IIIB Instrument Landing System at both the ends.

Giving details on the third runway, Mr. Rao said: “The runway lighting systems are one of the most advanced in the world. The system is being fitted with single lamp control and monitoring system has been introduced that enables monitoring of individual lamps at the stop bars. The runway is more than 2 metres thick, comprising seven layers of filling, concrete treated base and asphalt concrete.”

A host of modern equipments have been used in the construction, including 8 vibratory soil compactors imported from Germany, 10 electronic sensor pavers and two 240 cubic metres per hour batching plants.

Extensive usage of computer simulations have been done while designing the rapid exit taxiways and link taxiways.

Eco-friendly methods were used during the construction involving extensive use of fly-ash in concrete and other cement based material, Mr. Rao informed.

Airports’ Authority of India Chairman K. Ramalingam and Director General of Civil Aviation Kanu Gohain visited the site last week and a final inspection will be done by the DGCA on Tuesday.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi