The main runway of Chennai airport will be closed for six hours daily till October due to infrastructure works being carried out in the airport.
According to a report in The Hindu, airport officials said that this closure will, however, not affect flight services to and from the airport since the secondary runway is equipped to handle the traffic.
The main runway will be closed from 12 pm to 6 pm till October and then from November, it will be closed from 10 am to 6 pm.
Developmental works have begun in the airport from Sunday including construction of new taxiways and strengthening of an existing taxiway which would help aircrafts exit at a higher speed than the usual.
As per airport officials, these works will help reduce airport congestion by reducing the time aircrafts spend on the runway. These will also help reduce delay in flights.
However, in case of emergencies, the works can be halted and the runway can be brought to usable condition within an hour of intimation.
The rationale of closing the runway in the daytime is because only domestic flights ply in that window, and they can remain functional using the secondary runway.
During nights, several international flights operate to and from Chennai airport, using wide-body aircrafts. These aircrafts must be operated on the primary runway and hence closing it down during night is not a feasible option.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) was slotted to begin these works earlier this year as per reports.
Constructing new taxiways was on the cards since the existing one runs too close to the runway and cannot be used when the runway is occupied by wide-body jets like Boeing 747 or 777.