NEW DELHI: India’s first Elevated Cross Taxiway (ECT) at Delhi airport is expected to be complete by December 2022. According to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the operator of the facility, nearly 60 per cent of the work has been completed.
The 2.1-km-long dual elevated corridor will not only help decongest the airport and improve circulation paths of the aircraft but will also reduce about 55,000 tonnes of CO2 emission annually. Besides, it will improve travelling experience as passengers will have to remain inside a plane for a much shorter duration after landing or before take-off.
At present, after landing or before take-off at runway 29/11, an aircraft has to cover about nine km. This taxiing distance will go down to just two km as the ECT will take an aircraft directly to Terminal 1 or vice-versa. This will help airlines save approximately 350 kg of fuel every time, said DIAL in a statement.
“This will translate into a reduction of nearly 1,114 kg of CO2 emissions for each aircraft taxiing along this route. Annually, the ECT is estimated to reduce emission of approximately 55,000 tonnes of CO2,” it added.
“Environment has emerged as a major focus area in the aviation sector. We, at Delhi airport, have taken various initiatives to reduce emissions. We have implemented Airport-Collaborative Decision Making for airport operations and all runway operations to minimise aircraft delay and associated emissions,” said I Prabhakar Rao, Deputy Managing Director, GMR Group, which leads the consortium DIAL.
DIAL officials said ECT is an integral part of Delhi airport’s Phase 3A expansion project under which a 4.4-km airstrip parallel to runway 11/29 on the south is also being built to handle increased traffic. With this, Delhi airport will become the first in India to have four operational runways.