Mangalore International Airport’s plans to become more efficient by being able to handle aircraft one after another is set to become a reality as the construction of additional taxiways has begun.
The taxiways provide the important link between the runways and the aircraft parking near the terminal buildings. Mangalore airport, which has two terminal buildings, has two runways (old and new).
One taxi track connects the new terminal building at Kenjar to the relatively new concrete runway on the west and the other one connects old terminal building at Bajpe to the old and mostly unused runway on the east. Now passenger flights arrive at the new terminal building at Kenjar.
Director of the airport J.T. Radhakrishna told The Hindu that PCC Constructions, a Mumbai-based company, has bagged the Rs. 35-crore contract of building the new taxiways.
The taxi tracks would have to be completed within 18 months from August, 2014. They are expected to be ready by January-February 2016.
Time advantage Mr. Radhakrishna said that as of now, aircrafts that are ready to take off had to wait for 10 to 15 minutes if their departure timing clashes with a flight that is about to land, due to the procedures involved. It has to wait till the arriving plane completes its course on the runway and rolls into the parking area (apron) at the terminal building.
Now only one taxiway is used for both entry and exit from the runway. Once the parallel taxiways are ready, there will be separate and fixed entry and exit paths on both the ends.
When the 600 metre-long and 23 metre-wide taxiway is ready, a departing flight can move till the end of it, wait there and enter the runway as soon as the arriving aircraft is off the runway. “The parallel taxiway will particularly help in the long run when the number of flights increases in the airport,” he said.
