To bring down noise, AAI rotates runway use at IGI

New Delhi: In a bid to distribute the nuisance of approaching aircraft noise evenly for residents, Airports Authority of India (AAI) recently started rotational operations on the two runways at the IGI airport. At present, each runway is alternately used for an 8-hour duration for landings while at night, between 10pm and 6am, the time comes down to 4 hours.
Earlier, a night curfew had to be imposed on landing operations at the new runway 29/11 between 10pm and 6am after residents of Vasant Kunj approached the court over the massive noise pollution that was caused by approaching aircraft. Sources in AAI said that if such measures were to be taken, it was only fair that residents of other areas that fell in the approach path to runway 28 and 27 also benefited from it. "We understand that the noise of a landing aircraft can be quite disturbing but it wasn't fair that only residents of one area should be protected from it. For the past five days or so, we have been rotating arrivals between the runway 29 and runway 28/27. Each runway is used for 8 hours. At night, which used to be a blanket curfew on runway 29, we are now distributing traffic between 29 and 28/27 for 4 hours each,'' said a senior official.
28/10/10 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: airports Oct 2010