3rd runway likely by Sept. 22

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi

Aug. 28: The new third runway at the New Delhi IGI airport is likely to be made operational for commercial purposes in a three-phased manner from September 22, well-placed aviation sources have indicated. Successful flight trials had taken place at the new runway on August 21 in the presence of civil aviation minister Praful Patel. While it was estimated earlier that the runway could be made operational by August 28, well-placed sources said that more time had been given to the aviation industry including airlines as per international requirements before the new runway is thrown open for commercial purposes.

Officials of the Delhi International Airports Ltd. (DIAL) — the GMR-led company operating and managing the New Delhi IGI airport — said that commercial operations would begin from late September onwards.

"In the first phase lasting two weeks, the new runway will be used in tandem with one of the existing runways for a few hours. In the next phase, the usage will increase up to 16 hours a day giving pilots experience on night operations. In the third and final phase, the new runway will be operated in line with Air Traffic Control procedure, to provide the maximum available safe throughput," DIAL stated officially.

"This gradual progression would give the ATC, pilots and the airport operator valuable experience on operating on the new infrastructure in tandem with the existing runways. This decision was taken following the successful trial flights from the new runway by Air India, Kingfisher, Indigo and Jet Airways aircraft on August 21, 2008. The global practice for introduction of new safety critical infrastructure is to always phase the introduction on an incremental basis," DIAL added.