Work on 4th runway to start from March 2019

New Delhi: The construction work of the much-awaited fourth runway at Delhi airport is likely to start from March this year. With this step, the flight operation capacity will increase from 75 to 105 flights an hour at the IGI airport.

The fourth runway will be introduced by 2022, making IGI airport the first one in the country to come up with four runways. It would help to reduce air congestion and handle more flights. It will be built parallel to Runway 11/29.

According to sources, the fourth runway will be 4,400 meters long and 75 meters wide.  Sources said that with new airplanes coming in, there was a pressing demand for the airport to be equipped with advanced facility and this runway will serve the purpose.

“Delhi airport’s current capacity to handle 62.5 million passengers per annum and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo makes it ideally suited to serve the growth of Indian aviation. The airport has the ability to expand to 109 million passengers per annum and 2.2 million tonnes of cargo before it reaches its saturation point,” said a source.

This would take up the capacity of the Delhi airport from 75 aircraft movements per hour to 105 aircraft movements per hour. The airport at present has three functional runways.

To keep pace with the growth witnessed it will now add a fourth runway shortly.

“We have planned to increase the capacity of T1 and T3 and build a fourth runway in due course of time,” said airport sources.

The expansion would enable Delhi airport to handle the steep rise in passenger inflow at the airport, sources added.