Calcutta runway closed for repair

Calcutta: The primary runway of Calcutta airport will remain closed during the day till October 31. Flights will take off from and land on the secondary runway during the period.
“The main runway is being closed down between 10.30am and 5.30pm since Saturday for preventive maintenance work,” said a senior airport official. According to airport sources, frequent damage to the runway surface has necessitated the maintenance work.
While the minimum visibility required for a flight to take off from or touch down on the primary runway is 350 metres, the corresponding figure for the secondary runway is 3,000 metres. Jumbo aircraft find it difficult to take off from the secondary runway, which at 2,399 metres is significantly shorter than the main runway (3,627 metres).
On Sunday, the Calcutta-London Air India flight was to take off around 1pm. “But since it is a large plane and the visibility had dropped below 3,000 metres, the repair work had to be stopped to allow the flight take off,” stated the official.
“The primary runway surface is peeling off regularly. Since the runway was operational throughout the day, we could not carry out the maintenance work earlier,” added an official.
Earlier, the runway had been closed down for an hour for patchwork but that proved inadequate.
29/10/07 The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Oct 2007