Aircrafts landing in Chennai airport can soon heave a sigh of relief as the construction of two new taxiways is nearing completion.
According to reports, once completed, these taxiways will help airplanes move out of the runway faster and reach the parking bays. One taxiway under construction connects the main and the second runway. The other taxiway, which also connects to the main runway, will run parallel to it, allowing landing aircrafts an exit.
The new taxiways hope to reduce traffic congestion in the airport. Apart from the taxiways, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is also modifying the parking and the apron bays in order to make them fit to handle larger aircrafts like the Boeing 747.
An official from AAI told the Times of India that the construction works are being carried out in small portions so that the flight operations to and from Chennai are not affected.
A bend on the taxiway that runs parallel to the runway was causing slowdown of planes during their taxi to the Guindy-end of the main runway. The new taxiway is targeted at addressing this bottleneck. The new taxiways will also speed up the planes by 10 minutes during take-offs.
The new taxiways are part of the airport expansion project Phase 2, aimed at increasing the aircraft handling capacity of Chennai airport. Once completed, Chennai airport aims to handle over 40 aircrafts in an hour. The project also intends to allow more airlines to have night parking facilities in the airport. The AAI has also floated tenders to finish the pending work on the two taxiways. Meanwhile, the new terminal in the airport is expected to be ready by September this year, which will increase the airport’s passenger handling capacity to 35 million passengers a year.