Mangaluru: The recarpeting work of the 2.45 km long runway of the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) is completed. The MIA kept the runway open every day for 18 domestic and international flights on average during the remaining hours of the day throughout the 75 days and 529 hours it required to finish the project.
The flexible overlay of asphalt over a stiff runway, which is the first of its type in India, is the project’s unique feature, aimed at achieving compliance criteria given down by the aviation safety regulator and finished on May 28 in 75 working days from March 10, according to a release from the MIA here.
The operation used 81,696 tonnes of asphalt, which is equivalent to laying 82 km of road using 80 advanced pieces of equipment. MIA has planned for the installation of runway centre illumination to ensure the safety of future operations. The airport’s top management praised the airport personnel for finishing the project ahead of time.
On January 27, the airport began preliminary survey work on the project. The MIA is Karnataka’s second busiest airport, with approximately 36 aircraft movements per day. The airport employed 8.52 hours of NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) time each day from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. to recarpet the runway without disrupting planned flight operations.
