Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on January 17 that the rehabilitation construction project of Delhi Airport's, CAT IIIB-compliant, airstrip 28/10 would be completed this week.
Delhi airport is targeting to complete all the activities related to runway maintenance by January 19 for Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) inspection, GMR Airport said in a letter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on January 16.
The maintenance of the runway was expected to be completed by December 15 but pollution and enforcement of GRAP-IV in Delhi resulted in delays, said the minister.
“…the maintenance was taken on top priority to be completed by 15th December before the onset of the fog season. However, due to pollution incidents and enforcement of GRAP-IV in Delhi, the recarpeting got delayed, resulting in a delay of one month in its commissioning. The revamped RWY is getting operational this week,” said Scindia in a tweet.
Delhi Airport has informed the aviation ministry that the runway would be functional by January 26.
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Delhi airport has four runways out of which two are CAT III-enabled, which qualifies runways to carry flights operation even in low-visibility conditions. One of the CAT-III enabled runway is operational while the other is under maintenance.
As per the letter by Delhi Airport sent to MoCA, the airport was able to start work for the fourth runway after G20 Summit but execution got impacted on account of disruption in raw material supply chain for civil works due to the implementation of GRAP-IV.
The completion of maintenance work for the runway is expected to bring respite amid several flight cancellations and delays due to severe fog in Delhi-NCR. In an unusual incident on January 14, a passenger assaulted an IndiGo pilot after the flight was delayed for over 12 hours.
The airport has been unable to restart runway 28/10, which has been closed since September last year. The original plan of reopening the runway in the last week of December has been postponed twice.
The ground lighting system at the runway has been delayed as the manufacturer Honeywell faced constraints in importing the lights. Airfield ground lighting is crucial as it helps in navigation of planes during approach, on the runway and on taxiway during low visibility and at night.
On January 14, more than 500 flights were delayed at the airport. As visibility dropped to almost zero between 3 am and 10 am, no departure could take place as take-off requires a runway visibility of at least 125 metres.
The situation further worsened as even landing in low visibility conditions on runway 29L/11R was hit due to a crane being used by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for construction of a highway.
"The crane was being used for the construction of another critical infrastructure project - the Dwarka Expressway. However, in view of its impact on the runway, it has now been decided that the crane operation shall be allowed only on non-fog days. Thus, RWY 11R/29L is operational as CAT III as of yesterday," Scindia said in a tweet on January 17,
While landings on a CAT III runway can happen in visibility as low as 50 metres, the capability significantly reduces under CAT I.
The Aviation Minister added that the two CAT III runways at Delhi Airport are equipped for aircraft to land with minimum visibility of up to 50 meters.
"However, the majority of the aircraft fleet in India viz. Airbus 320 (75 mtrs) and Boeing 737 Max (175 mtrs) have visibility minima greater than the runway threshold. Thus, even if the runway is capable and sufficiently trained CAT III pilots are made available, these aircraft are not designed for Zero Visibility operations," Scindia said.
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