Delhi gets new runway, longest in Asia

The Delhi airport today became the first in Asia to get brand new 4.4 km longest runway. With this, the huge congestion at the country’s second busiest airline hub, long queue in waiting for landing and taking off and innumerable flight delays would come to an end. Till date Kuala Lumpur International Airport (Malaysia) had the longest runway 4.12 km strip.

Built with Rs 1000 crore expenses, the runway is likely to nearly double the airport’s peak-hour capacity from 35-40 aeroplanes landings and take-offs to about 75. Currently the two existing parallel runways handle nearly 700 flights a day.

After carrying out a successful trial of landing and take-off by aircrafts an airport official said that the date for starting commercial operations will soon be announced.

The runway is also incorporated with CAT 111 B landing facilities that allows aircraft to land even when visibility is as low as 50-metre. Besides, the water logging in the monsoon will not create problems for aircrafts from conducting its daily routine.

The faster landings and take-offs will also help in consuming less fuel and reduce air pollution.

Till date the Delhi airport had only two runways-one runs from the Dwarka side to the Vasant Kunj side and the other one intersects it-shared by domestic and international flights. The latest runway runs from the Dwarka towards Gurgaon.

The new runway however, as experts say, might have to encounter with some problems owing to bird hits. The runway runs near Shiv Murti, which also has a picnic spot and so bird hits may be an inevitable hazards.

The runway is constructed with using over 6,50,000 tonnes of asphalt concrete, which makes it capable to easy handling of big aircraft like the Airbus A380 and the Antonov AN-225.

The project for the third runway was first proposed in 1969 by the JRD Tata committee. It was however in 1996, the Airport Authority of India had asked for permission to start making the third runway. The project could not even then meet with government’s sanction, which wanted to privatise the airport.

Eventually, the Commonwealth Games which is scheduled in 2010 made the government impossible to delay the project anymore and thus the trial runs started on Thursday.

The runway has been built by Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd, a GMR Group led Joint Venture Consortium mandated to operate and modernise the Indira Gandhi International Airport under the public private partnership initiative of the central government.