Saturday, October 13, 2018

Accident puts spotlight on delay in runway expansion

Tiruchi: The narrow escape that passengers and crew of the Air India Express flight had at the Tiruchi international airport early on Friday has brought into focus the long-pending land acquisition for expanding the runway and its proximity to the Tiruchi-Pudukottai Highway as well.

“It would have been a catastrophe if only the aircraft had hit a vehicle on the highway (which runs along the airport perimeter wall),” a senior official of the airport conceded.

The highway is so close to the runway that it was considered a security and safety threat. Some years ago a proposal to provide a diversion to the road was mooted. However, it failed to take off.

While airport officials maintain that the aircraft had not overshot the runway, activists contend that the accident could have been averted if only the runway had been expanded as planned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“A major accident has been averted by a whisker. The runway expansion plan is pending for almost a decade for want of land. The acquisition process is said to have been expedited in recent months; it should be completed quickly,” said M.Sekaran, consumer activist and president of the Air, Rail and Road Travellers Federation.
13/10/18 S. Ganesan/The Hindu

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