The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had formed a team to probe the incident. Interestingly, it is scheduled to visit the airport on Monday, a day after the major repair work will be completed.
The runway of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport will witness a major repair work on Sunday, almost a week after it was reportedly damaged due to rains.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had formed a team to probe the incident. Interestingly, it is scheduled to visit the airport on Monday, a day after the major repair work will be completed.
This repair work is likely to keep the runway non-functional beyond the usual non-operational hours. In less than a year after resurfacing work on the runway was completed, the asphalt on the surface right at the centre of the runway came off on Monday morning delaying several flights.
Sources said, “The real picture would only come out if the AAI team arrives before the repair work is undertaken. Otherwise, there is a huge probability that the matter would be covered up by the time AAI team eventually visits.”
Manoj Gangal, airport director, said, “The repair work is scheduled on Sunday as anyhow the runway remains shut for pending work every Sunday. Seeing the nature of this particular work, the runway might remain non-functional beyond the designated hours.”
The city airport which had undergone a runway repair work almost a year ago was made functional from October last year but remained shut for eight hours on Sundays. The same was later revised to five hours (10 am to 3 pm).
Guruprasad Mohapatra, chairman, AAI had told DNA earlier this week that the incident happened due to drainage problem.
“We will send a team of officials from Delhi to look into the matter. I have sought a detailed report on the same within a week. The repair work should be done diligently so that the same does not repeat and for the same, the runway might have to remain non-functional for a few hours.”
During routine runway inspection around 10 am on Monday, it was observed that some portion of the bitumen on the runway surface had come out.
Hence, keeping flight safety in view, flight operations were withheld for some time as a precautionary measure.
After inspection of the runway and assessment of the situation, it was decided that the reduced length of the runway could be used for smaller aircraft operations.
The damaged patch was spotted near the centre of the runway due to which bigger aircraft could not be operated.
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