Critical runway maintenance and repair work that has been under way at Mumbai airport since February 7 is set to end this Saturday, allowing for smoother landings and takeoffs, along with the restoration of 230 cancelled flights.
The nearly Rs. 100-crore project work involved recarpetting the critical 50,000 sq. mt. intersection of the two runways with bitumin. The last time such an elaborate exercise was carried out was in 2009-10. “A resurfaced runway depending on factors like jet blast, weathering action, rubber deposits etc will last 7 to 8 years,” officials of Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL) said during a media tour of the runway intersection area. Similarly, MIAL had earlier carried out preservation of the runway surface by applying airport-grade sealguard technology from the US in 2016.
