A plan to extend the Mangalore airport’s tabletop runway, which witnessed the decade’s worst plane crash in India, remains stuck 10 months after it was announced as both the airports regulator and the Karnataka government are reluctant to bear the expense.
In May, an Air India Boeing 737-800 flying in from Dubai overshot the airfield and crashed into an adjacent hill, killing 158 passengers and crew. The airport is on top of a hill with deep gorges on all sides of the runway, which gives the airfield its prefix.
Immediately after the crash, the aviation ministry said the runway would be extended by 1,000m, or about 3,280ft, to make it safe to land widebody aircraft used in long-haul international flights.
Mangalore is not a designated international airport but was cleared five years ago to handle flights to and from Dubai. The coastal city caters to a large population of passengers from within and neighbouring areas, including Kerala, who work in West Asia.
“We have sent the proposal (to the regulator and the state government). The plan is still at a concept stage,” said Mangalore airport director M.R. Vasudeva. “No physical designs are drawn.”
The tabletop runway at Mangalore airport measures about 9,400ft, long enough to accommodate aircraft such as Airbus A310 but inadequate to handle larger planes.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a global monitoring body for the industry, stipulates the airfield length required to handle widebody aircraft such as the Boeing 747 at 12,000ft.
“Even the Boeing 737s land with a lesser load on plane as it is not possible to carry full load for a safe landing,” said an airport official at Mangalore airport, who declined to be named.
An official with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said it is already investing at least Rs.6,000 crore in 35 airports to upgrade facilities and is not ready to put money into expanding the Mangalore airfield.
10/03/11 Bhargavi Kerur & Tarun Shukla/Live Mint
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