BENGALURU: The runway at Jakkur aerodrome is 900 metres in length and the airfield is struggling to get an extension for the same. Jakkur has been subjected to multiple development strategies and the shrinking in the length of the runway poses a threat to aircrafts and pilots during take-off and landing.
While the airfield was once spread across 250 acres, the total landscape it has today is around 215 acres. The airfield is likely to get chopped further with proposals of a metro line from Nagavara to Thanisandra and a road project towards the northern compound.
Runway under threat?
The flyover to the airport stands as a threat to the aircraft and pilots. An airfield official who wished to remain anonymous said, “When there are easterly winds, aircraft take off in the opposite direction and vice versa. However, since the flyover has been erected on the western side, it stands in our way when we have to take off or land this side.”
Captain Arvind Sharma filed a PIL in 2013 in the High Court questioning, “How legal is the existence of the flyover just 200 metres ahead of the aerodrome’s take-off and landing point?”
It has been five years since the PIL was filed. Sharma said, “The only way to extend the runway from west would be to raze the flyover which is not happening. We are left with the eastern side where the National Highway Authority of India has asked Government Flying Training Institute (GFTS) to acquire the land and the former would pay for it. This agreement was done in 2014 but action is still awaited.”
According to a trainee flier, an aircraft is at 100 kmph when it touches the glide path (point where aircraft first lands), after which the craft needs 400-500 metres to come to a halt. In Jakkur’s case,the glide path has moved ahead of the set point ever since the flyover came up towards west. A source hinted that levelling land on the eastern side can yield 200 metres, making the total runway length a kilometre. However, Wing Commander and Chief Flying Instructor, GFTS, Amarjeet Singh Dange said the aerodrome is yet to receive approval from the state government for its runway extension.