There’s a statue of Lord Shiva in its approach path, which could make both landing and take-off difficult
NEW DELHI: The upcoming third runway at Indira Gandhi International Airport is facing problems from Lord Shiva himself. A towering statue of the deity on National Highway 8 is coming in the approach path of the runway.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) claims the runway, Code F, will be Asia’s longest and is expected to increase the airport’s flight handling capacity. The runway is designed to provide smooth landing to aircraft as big as the A-380.
Senior DIAL officials aren’t too worried about the Shiva statue. They claim that design changes in the runway have minimised possible problems. But airport sources said the statue is right in the flight approach path and will create problems.
“There will be trouble both in landing and take-off because the statue is right in the approach path of the runway,” said an airport official who did not wish to be named.
He explained: “The approach path is the most crucial section of the trajectory of an aircraft at the time of landing because before touching the runway, it hovers as low as 100 feet above ground. This is impossible if there are any high-rise structures in that area.”
Even according to International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines, there should be no high-rise building in the approach path to prevent any untoward incident.
Delhi airport currently has two runways, which are called 10-28 (3,810 metres) and 09-27 (281 metres), but none of them can handle aircraft as big as the A-380. The new runway will be 4,430 metres long. DIAL plans to shift maximum number of take-offs and landings to this runway once it is complete.
In the present situation, an aircraft will have to touch down nearly in the middle of the new runway while landing if it has to avoid the statue. Similarly, it will have to take off somewhere before the middle of the runway.
“This means the runway won’t be used to its optimum capacity because of the statue,” the official added.
k_yogesh@dnaindia.net
