Third Runway BY September for New Delhi

Delhi: Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is targeting the first week of September for its third runway to become fully operational.

On Aug. 21, it will begin trials with the touchdown of an Air India flight with crew members only.

With a length of 4,430 meters it will be the country's longest runway, and is expected to substantially reduce the load on the existing two in Delhi. At present, the airport handles about 41 flights during peak hours. The third runway will boost capacity to nearly 65. However, this will be at the discretion of air traffic control, an official said.

At a recent seminar on air space management, D. K. Behra, president of the Air Traffic Controllers Guild, said too many changes were being implemented in too short a time putting stress on controllers that needed more training and time to cope.

"Regulators must see that this does not have an adverse impact," Behra cautioned referring to the simultaneous implementation of the third runway, auto-track for Mumbai and Delhi, and implementation of performance-based navigation (PBN) that could prove to be in the interest of safety.

A senior official told AviationWeek: "If it was a safety risk, ICAO would not have approved it."

The airport, covering a 1,900-acre site, has two runways 10/28 (12,500 feet, 3,810 meters) and also an auxiliary runway 09/27 (9,229 feet, 2,813 meters).

Christened 11/29, the 75-meter-wide runway (including shoulders) will be among the longest in Asia at 4,430 meters. The runway 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 kilometers long.

The runway has been built to Code F standards--to accommodate the A380 or the Antonov An-225. It will be equipped with CAT IIIB Instrument Landing System at both ends.

According to Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL): "The runway is over two meters thick, comprising seven layers of filling, concrete-treated base, and asphalt concrete. Over 650,000 tons of asphalt concrete has been used during the construction of the runway and taxiways; material which can help build a 75-kilometer-long, six-lane expressway."

DIAL is a joint venture company comprising Bangalore-based GMR Group, Airports Authority of India, Fraport, Malaysian Airport and India Development Fund. DIAL is working toward the modernization and restructuring of the Delhi Airport. The project being developed by DIAL under Public Private Partnership has been given the mandate to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the Delhi Airport for 30 years with an option to extend it by another 30 years.