An official said on Monday that the six-month-long “re-carpeting” project at the local Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport has been completed, improving operational effectiveness and upholding higher safety standards for air travel. The CSMIA operates one of the busiest single-crossover runways in the world – secondary runway 14/32 and the main runway 09/27 — handling an average of 950 flights daily and it is imperative for the runways to be kept in optimal conditions for continuous and safe landing/take-off of aircraft.
To ensure smooth and effective operations for the secondary runway, the re-carpeting project was accordingly started on December 9, 2022, and finished as planned on June 10, just before the monsoon season arrived. Around 200 personnel comprising engineers and workers toiled daily for the project and the runway was closed for up to 12 hours daily, following a comprehensive schedule to complete the recarpeting within the deadline, said the official.
The work involved a runway length of 2,210 metres excluding the intersection portion, and a breadth of 75 metres, and the upgradation of all the stressed portions by laying some 72,500 tonnes of asphalt. The Adani Group-owned CSMIA adopted the widely-acclaimed ‘Mill & Fill’ technique for Runway 14/32 comprising carefully orchestrated steps that include precise removal of existing Airfield Ground Lighting fittings by core cutting, core filling with quick-set concrete, etc.