With 60% of repair done, Mumbai airport's main runway to reopen on March 28

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The maintenance work of Mumbai international airport's main runway is up to 60 percent over, and is likely to reopen on March 28, ahead of its schedule.

More than 800 people with over 100 equipment are working for over six hours a day to re-carpet what is one of the busiest runways in the world.

"Runway 9/27, which handles about 950 flights a day, was last upgraded in 2010-2011. Repair was needed to ensure safety of flights landing and taking off," said an executive from the industry.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport is operated by GVK Mumbai International Airport Ltd.  About 25 flights a day have been cancelled to enable the work.

The repair work was postponed due to the prolonged monsoon. Since November 4, the runway has been closed for eight hours everyday, except Sunday and a few public holidays. It will be open for flight operations on January 15, February 19 and 21, March 10 and 25 on account of public holidays.

The primary runway will now reopen on March 28, when the airlines complete their winter schedule, and just ahead of the busy summer season.

Even as the repair work on the main runway goes on, the secondary runway - 14/32 - is available for take-offs and landings.

Clockwork precision

The main runway handles 97 percent of the Mumbai airport's traffic and thus the team repairing it needs to work in clockwork precision to hand it back for flight operations at 5.30 pm, everyday.

The precision especially becomes a critical point when a new layer is laid. The mix, which is prepared in a plant erected at the airport, has to be laid at temperature of over 165 degrees.

"This has to be done before 1.30 pm, so that there is enough time for rolling and then for cooling down before the runway can be used, post 5.30 pm," said the executive quoted above.

Every day, about 100m of the runway is repaired, and about 700 tons of material is used to re-lay the surface.

Apart from the runway, the operator also completes a lot of other associated work to make the most of the closure.

"This includes upgrading systems used to guide airplanes to land, and the area around the runway that prevents a plane from overshooting," said the executive.

The present work is the second phase of Major Rehabilitation project to keep the runways in good health. In the last financial year, the intersection of the two runways was repaired.

The third and the final phase will be done in the 2021 financial year, to repair the secondary runway.