TIRUCHY: Plans are afoot to construct an underpass on Tiruchy-Pudukkottai National Highway (NH 210/336) abutting the Tiruchy airport runway. The close proximity of the national highway that witnesses the movement of heavy vehicles to Runway 09 has been a cause of concern for pilots about to make a landing; the underpass is envisioned to ease traffic on the national highway.
"Tiruchy airport has a 2423 metre long runway. The runway end close to NH side is called Runway 09 and the end close to Nathamaadipatti is called Runway 27. Since we are having a busy road close to Runway 09, the landing threshold is about 147 metres away from the beginning of the runway.
In other words, when an aircraft lands at Runway 09 (runway portion close to NH), the runway length is 2276 metres since the landing distance available for the aircraft is reduced by 147 metres. However, when an aircraft lands at Runway 27, it would be able to utilise the entire 2,423-metre-long runway since the landing threshold starts at the beginning of the runway.
The construction of the underpass at NH would sort out this issue," a senior official said. Airline officials said the underpass at the NH would be a relief to pilots. "Factors like wind are taken into consideration while assigning runways to flights making landing.
In Tiruchy, pilot making a landing on Runway 09 would be concerned about the vehicle movement on the national highway spanning out in close proximity to the runway. The construction of the underpass would get rid of the problem," an airline officer said.
Talks have been on between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the construction of the underpass. During the recent visit of Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh to Tiruchy, airport officials had taken up the matter with him, following which the NHAI was directed to expedite the work.