Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB)
Mangaluru, Apr 25: With a view to deliver the best of services to fliers, Mangalore International Airport (MIA) under the aegis of Airport Authority of India has undertaken several development works from the past 2-3 years. Infrastructure, efficiency of officials, safety, security and facilities for passengers have been given importance.
The most recent addition is the commissioning of two new flight parking bays recently. With this, eight flights can be now parked instead of six at MIA.
Speaking to daijiworld on the project, MIA director J T Radhakrishna said, "The two new parking bays which were completed in a period of six months were commissioned on April 21. The Airport Authority of India spent an amount of Rs 4 crore for the same. As eight flights can be parked now, flight traffic will be reduced. This will attract more airline companies to operate from here. Flights need not wait for other aircraft to take off. Also, it will lead to lesser fuel consumption as flights do not need to keep circling round the airport waiting for parking space.
"The new parking bays will also avoid delay in flights' departure and arrivals. Another four parking bays are being planned which we aim to complete by 2018. Once we provide enough parking space, automatically more flights will start to operate from here. The new bays will help in handling air traffic quite smoothly," he informed.
Answering a query on the other ongoing projects he said, "We have already commissioned phase I of parallel taxi track. The construction of 1,200-metre long parallel taxi track (phase-II) is in progress. Taxi track is the stretch connecting the runway with the parking stand for aircraft in the terminal building. An aircraft uses the taxi track for entry and exit from the parking stand to the runway. With construction of parallel taxi track, the aircraft could move from the parking stand, wait in the additional taxi track and enter the runway for take-off immediately after the plane that has landed exits the runway.
"This additional taxi track particularly helps in the long run when the number of flights increases at the airport. It is operationally very important for flights' movement on ground. The works on phase II is likely to be completed by 2019. Airlines currently connect people both domestically and internationally from Mangaluru International Airport. The volume of air traffic from state's second international airport after Bengaluru is growing steadily each fiscal," he added.
Speaking on e-visa facility which began at MIA, the director said, "Passengers have started to use e-visa service. It is still in its initial stage of growth. I am expecting the service to become popular by the end of this year. Lots of passengers do not know about this facility. We need media's help to inform people about this newly launched e-visa service," he added.