... and faster landings at IGIA

To tackle congestion, the Indira Gandhi International Airport is soon going to have two new rapid exit taxiways by the end of May, reports Sidhartha Roy.

To tackle congestion, the Indira Gandhi International Airport is soon going to have two new rapid exit taxiways by the end of May. The Civil Aviation Ministry had recently asked Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd. (DIAL) to expedite the commissioning of more rapid exit taxiways at IGIA.

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Presently, IGIA has only three rapid exit taxiways from the main runway (28/10) – Lima, Mike and Delta 1 and one rapid exit taxiway from the secondary runway (27/09) – Echo 5. Two new rapid exit taxiways from the main runway – Uniform and Victor – are likely to be commissioned in May, said a Delhi International Airport Ltd spokesman. These taxiways are at a 30-degree angle from the runway and help aircraft to vacate the runway quickly after landing. Work on a seventh rapid exit taxiway, Foxtrot, is also on.

The main runway handles most arrivals and departures at IGIA and planes normally land from the runway 28 side. While this side of the runway has three rapid exit taxiways, the runway 10 side has none. Whenever the wind direction changes, the runway 10 side (Dwarka side) is used and in that case aircraft have to travel till the end of the runway to vacate it. Both the new taxiways would be on this side.

IGIA handles 670 flights every day and the ministry had recently put a cap on the number of flights to tackle the growing congestion. The ministry is also planning to reduce the minimum distance between aircraft to enable more planes to land and take off in less time but the airport first needs more taxiways for the plan to be implemented.