New Delhi: After undergoing maintenance and repair works, runway number 11-29 in Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport became operational on Friday morning.
The maintenance activities were planned given the onset of smog and scheduled in consultation with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the operator of IGI Airport, Delhi International Airport Limited, completed the runway maintenance works within the stipulated time.
The runway, before maintenance works, had remained closed for three days. Passengers faced a lot of difficulty during the said works.
During this time, the IGI faced another problem of serpentine queues at immigration counters in the airport. Following this, the government thought of putting up additional counters and staff to man the counters.
The runway number 11-29 remained closed from 12:01am on November 7 for three days and it became operational early Nov. 10 morning, as scheduled.
During the maintenance and upkeep works, the capacity of the airport was down to 45 air traffic movements (ATMs) per hour. The airport operator had revised the slot allocations in consultation with all the airlines.
However, with the resumption of the operation of the runway this morning, the airfield capacity is now back to normal.
“Timings for maintenance, which was jointly decided by the AAI and Dial in concurrence with DGCA airports and Airlines in India was intimated globally well in advance,” said a Dial spokesperson.
