Plans of several air travellers from Odisha could get affected as flight operations from Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA), the sole international airport in Bhubaneswar may see partial suspension in two phases for maintenance work for a period of eight long months,as said by Director Suresh Chandra Hota,BPIA.
Though, DGCA is yet to approve this proposal. “We will need approval from DGCA. We are carrying out all assessments before we approach them”,as Hota said.
The flight services are expected to be rescheduled as the re-carpeting work of the airport’s runway will be taken up starting November. The re-carpeting of the runway is a standard maintenance work done every 10 years. The re-carpeting of the runway was last taken up at Bhubaneswar airport in 2007.
Director Hota informed that as the re-carpeting work of main runway will be taken up, they have decided to close the airport from 10:30 PM to 5:30 AM from 1st November 2019 to 31st March,2020. In the second phase, April through June 2020, operations will be suspended during daytime from 10:30 am to 6 PM. The work for joining the parallel taxi-track with the runway will be taken up during this period so that further closure is avoided.
“To take up the massive work, we have to reschedule flight operations during night hours in the first phase and daytime in the second phase,” Hota added.
Currently, there is main runway of 1432 mts and another runway of 500 mts at Bhubaneswar airport. The main runway is used by big aircrafts like Airbus and Boeings for landing.
As informed by the senior officials, re-carpeting of the runway is a routine affair and is essential to reduce further degradation of the runway.
