Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) will be closed for seven hours daily for the second phase of airport rehabilitation – to restore the taxiway – from Sunday.
From January, the only international airport plans to open 24-7 for the first time since its operation in 1949, according to general manager of the airport Raj Kumar Chettri.
The airport will reduce operations until four months to December 31 – from 11:30 pm to 6:30 am the next day – as it has already asked the international airlines to reschedule their flights. But the airport will be opened exclusively for half an hour for Nepal Airlines flight to Osaka in Japan bypassing the time-sensitive ‘notice to airmen’ period during which the crucial second-phase of taxiway construction will be ongoing.
The 1,950-metre-long parallel taxiway that has been experiencing problems in its pavement, primarily rutting has now been covered with a new layer of asphalt. “Taxiway rehabilitation, taxiway-runway link road rehabilitation, and installation of runway centreline light will be carried out under the second phase,” he said, adding that the TIA will open for 24 hours, after the renovation of the taxiway is completed. “The runway and taxiway are being renovated in a Rs 3.78-billion project.”
China’s state-owned enterprise China National Aero Technology International Engineering Corporation has received the rehabilitation contract.
TIA sees some 400 flights, including 100 international flights, per day. The international airport’s runway was built in 1975. Runways of international airports, as per the international standard, should be refurbished with the use of new bitumen every 10 years but it took TIA some four decade to do the same. According to the data, the TIA handled some 7.19 million passengers last year. There were a total of 129,511 flights over Nepali skies – some 74 per cent of them domestic flights – creating congestion in the sky and on the ground.
For the last seven years, aircraft weighing more than 196 tonnes have been barred from the airport to prevent damage to the runway as it had been frequent occurrences of cracks in the pavement.
The 1,143 metres long runway of TIA was extended to 2,011 metres in 1967 and again extended in 1975 to 3,050 metres. Earlier the international airport was closed partially for the rehabilitation of runway, during the first stage of rehabilitation to renovate works on the 3,050-metre-long runway. The TIA had been shut down for 10 hours a day from April 1 for a period of three months to June 30, and is currently in operation for 21 hours daily.
Likewise, the pavement strengthening of the runway and taxiway was last conducted in 1995.
From January, the only international airport plans to open 24-7 for the first time since its operation in 1949, according to general manager of the airport Raj Kumar Chettri.
The airport will reduce operations until four months to December 31 – from 11:30 pm to 6:30 am the next day – as it has already asked the international airlines to reschedule their flights. But the airport will be opened exclusively for half an hour for Nepal Airlines flight to Osaka in Japan bypassing the time-sensitive ‘notice to airmen’ period during which the crucial second-phase of taxiway construction will be ongoing.
The 1,950-metre-long parallel taxiway that has been experiencing problems in its pavement, primarily rutting has now been covered with a new layer of asphalt. “Taxiway rehabilitation, taxiway-runway link road rehabilitation, and installation of runway centreline light will be carried out under the second phase,” he said, adding that the TIA will open for 24 hours, after the renovation of the taxiway is completed. “The runway and taxiway are being renovated in a Rs 3.78-billion project.”
China’s state-owned enterprise China National Aero Technology International Engineering Corporation has received the rehabilitation contract.
TIA sees some 400 flights, including 100 international flights, per day. The international airport’s runway was built in 1975. Runways of international airports, as per the international standard, should be refurbished with the use of new bitumen every 10 years but it took TIA some four decade to do the same. According to the data, the TIA handled some 7.19 million passengers last year. There were a total of 129,511 flights over Nepali skies – some 74 per cent of them domestic flights – creating congestion in the sky and on the ground.
For the last seven years, aircraft weighing more than 196 tonnes have been barred from the airport to prevent damage to the runway as it had been frequent occurrences of cracks in the pavement.
The 1,143 metres long runway of TIA was extended to 2,011 metres in 1967 and again extended in 1975 to 3,050 metres. Earlier the international airport was closed partially for the rehabilitation of runway, during the first stage of rehabilitation to renovate works on the 3,050-metre-long runway. The TIA had been shut down for 10 hours a day from April 1 for a period of three months to June 30, and is currently in operation for 21 hours daily.
Likewise, the pavement strengthening of the runway and taxiway was last conducted in 1995.
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