File image: Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi
Delhi International Airport Limited has completed refurbishing work on the 09/27 runway at Indira Gandhi International Airport and handed over the facility to ATC for commercial operations late last month, which will help in reducing the runway operations time, a release said on Wednesday.
The newly rehabilitated runway, which was constructed during the British period, complies with Category-I (CAT-I) Instrument Landing System (ILS), which assists pilots during landing an aircraft in low visibility conditions, it said.
DIAL undertook the rehabilitation work of runway 09/27 (first runway) as part of Delhi Airport’s phase 3A expansion project.
According to the private airport operator, the British constructed the 2,816 meter-long and 60 meter-wide runway in the pre-Independence era and used it during World War II.
DIAL said it undertook major rehabilitation works, including milling down the entire length of the runway’s flexible pavement to a depth of 60 mm and overlaying it with Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB), which can withstand heavy-duty traffic and extreme weather conditions.
DIAL has successfully completed the rehabilitation work of Runway 09/27 and its taxiways.
The British-era runway was rehabilitated and made operational for commercial operations as part of DIAL’s effort to enhance the infrastructure and passenger experience at Delhi Airport to make it future-ready, said I Prabhakar Rao, Dy Managing Director, GMR Group.
He said the newly rehabilitated runway will have a design life of 20 years and would be instrumental in handling the increased air traffic movements (ATMs), once pre-pandemic level traffic returns to Delhi Airport.
Runway 09/27 is on the northern side of Delhi Airport, and has a network of nine taxiways, out of which, 6 are connecting taxiways and 3 are rapid exit taxiways (RETs), DIAL said, adding it has also realigned a new 3.5 km-long taxiway, parallel to runway 09/27.
This will reduce the Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) and help in improving the traffic flow.
As part of the rehabilitation project, DIAL said it has also upgraded the Airfield Ground Lighting (AGL) system for runway 09/27 with a duct and pit system.
Moreover, all the existing lights of the runway and taxiways (around 850) have been upgraded to an LED system for higher efficiency and reliability as a part of rehabilitation work, DIAL said.
Post completion of Phase 3A expansion work, Delhi Airport’s passenger handling capacity is expected to increase to 100 million passengers per annum (MPPA), and the airside capacity will enhance to handle 140 MPPA, it said.
