DGCA nod to parallel taxi track, rapid exit taxiway at city airport
Bhubaneswar: Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved operational commissioning of a parallel taxi track (PTT) and rapid exit taxiway (RET) at Biju Patnaik International Airport.
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The new twin facilities will enhance the airport's operational efficiency by enabling faster aircraft movement and reducing runway occupancy time. The additions will help minimise flight delays and passenger waiting times by allowing quick aircraft exit from the runway, airport officials said.
Following DGCA approval, necessary changes were made in the flight management system (FMS). "Both facilities will ease ground operations.
We visited to see the completed work. We will operationalise it soon," said airport director Prasanna Pradhan. The PTT facility can facilitate directing aircraft from taxiway to runway quickly, ensuring quick movement of aircraft and less waiting time for passengers.
"PTT can now help free the runway soon after the aircraft lands as it will facilitate rapid exit taxiway (RET). In RET, aircraft exit the runway and move onto the taxiway after running around 1300 metres.
The total runway length is 2744 metres here," Pradhan added. Earlier, the airport had just a link taxiway. Initially, the first phase of PTT (1318 metres) was made operational, which helped handle 15 aircraft per hour.
"The full-length PTT can help handle 20 aircraft per hour," airport officials said.
Airport officials said the PTT will also be beneficial for workability of reconfiguring the runway lighting system.
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Construction of PTT was proposed in 2018. But encroachment of land by slum residents created a roadblock. In 2020, it took wings as the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) relocated 110 families from the Farm Gate basti. The airport sought land for the parallel taxiway.
In Oct 2023, the state-of-the-art automated Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and the link building connecting the domestic with the international terminal was inaugurated by chairman of Airport Authority of India (AAI) Sanjeev Kumar. Now, the new and old ATC towers are running simultaneously. The automation system at the new ATC was indigenously developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) under the Make in India initiative with cutting-edge technology.
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