The Hindu : Front Page : 4430-metre runway opens for trial runs at Delhi international airport

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Friday, Aug 22, 2008
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4430-metre runway opens for trial runs at Delhi international airport

Staff Reporter

One of the longest in Asia, it will be ready for commercial operations next month

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

GREETINGS: The first flight on the newly inaugurated third runway at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi being given the water cannon salute on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: With the landing of an Air India Boeing 777-300 (extended range), the third runway, 4,430 metres long, of the Indira Gandhi International Airport here — among the longest in Asia — opened for trial runs on Thursday morning.

The aircraft, with the pilot and cabin crew on board the inaugural flight, first performed a low flypast without landing and returned 10 minutes later.

The runway has been built by the Delhi International Airport Limited, a GMR group-led joint venture consortium mandated to operate and modernise the airport.

Anxious moments

The aircraft was given the traditional water cannon salute by fire tenders of the airport fire service.

However, the presence of a dog on the new runway just moments before the maiden flight landed and of birds after the landing gave anxious moments to DIAL and Civil Aviation Ministry officials.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who received the aircraft, told journalists that the new runway would be ready for commercial operations next month.

“It will take some more time for operations to stabilise. We are committed to providing world-class infrastructure in a time-bound manner. By the end of this year, domestic terminal 1-D will be ready, while the new terminal-3 will come up by early 2010. As of now, flight movement at Delhi airport is 35-40 per hour and it will go up to 60 with the coming into being of the third runway.”

GMR Group chairman G.M. Rao said: “Runways are roads that lead to the sky and it is our commitment to build infrastructure that paves the way for India’s economy to reach new heights.”

Completed more than six months ahead of schedule, the runway is equipped with the CAT IIIB Instrument Landing System at both ends allowing compatible aircraft to land even when visibility is as low as 50 metres.

Senior political leader Najma Heptullah and officials of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India were present at the event.

To handle large aircraft

PTI reports:

The IGI airport is the only one in the country to have three runways and CAT IIIB facility on two runways.

The 4,430 metre Code-F complaint runway can handle wide bodied aircraft such as Airbus A-380 and Antonov AN-225. The trials will continue till August 24. The runway was completed in record 18 months.

A massive 2.3 million cubic metres of soil was removed for laying 650,000 tonnes of asphalt — enough to build a 75-km six-lane expressway.

The runway, costing about Rs. 1000 crore, has a surface glass grid laid under the concrete to prevent cracks.

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