New Delhi: With the completion of instrument landing system installation and other works like painting runway markings and calibration by December, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport’s fourth runway is set commence operations by early next year.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman Sanjeev Kumar confirmed the development with TOI saying, “The fourth runway should get operational by early 2023.” With this, the IGI airport will become the only Indian airport to have four runways.
With a total of four runways, the most for an airport across the country, Delhi airport will become capable of flying in and out as many as 14 crore passengers annually, showed a capacity study conducted by the UK-based air traffic management firm, NATS.
The 14-crore figure is more than double of the 6. 9 crore international-cum-domestic (both arrival and departure) numbers in the last pre-pandemic year of 2019. However, reaching the number will require air traffic management techniques to safely handle more planes by reducing their separation along with other technical methods.
However, it must be put here that currently there is a shortage of air traffic controllers (ATCOs) as air traffic and new airports are on a rise in India. “Given the kind of traffic IGIA — India’s busiest airport — handles, we need experienced ATCOs,” said senior ATCOs.
AAI chairman Kumar, meanwhile, shared there were firm plans to have more ATCOs and upgrade the air traffic control (ATC) systems across India. “We have drawn up a 10-year plan to increase ATC capacity by replacing old equipment and upgrading them across India.”
10/08/22 ETNow
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