Team Herald
Vasco: A new Parallel Taxi Track (PTT), which is located north of the runway at the Goa International Airport and built by Airports Authority of India (AAI), was formally commissioned for trial use on Friday afternoon in a simple ceremony. Anuj Agarwal, Member, AAI, Rear Admiral Philipose George Pynumootil, Flag Officer Commanding, Goa Naval Area and Gagan Malik, Airport Director and Commanding Officer, INS Hansa were present on this occasion.
On this occasion, Gagan Malik, Airport Director, Goa International Airport said, “Besides the distinct operational advantage offered by the new PTT, the reduced wait time of aircraft would manifest in significantly reduced carbon emissions, which is very important in the present context”.
Malik added that a host of other major developmental works including further extension of the Terminal Building is on the anvil to meet the growing expectations of air traffic at the Goa International Airport.
Later, sources from AAI informed that new PTT, which is 3000 metres in length, will allow aircrafts to independently line up for departure or expeditiously leave the runway after landing thereby significantly reducing arrival and departure times at Goa International Airport, especially during peak traffic hours. The PTT is capable of handling large wide bodied aircraft like the Boeing 747.
The project was planned and executed by AAI in close cohesion with the Indian Navy in a closely monitored time frame at an overall cost of Rs.180 crores. It will offer the advantage of dynamically surmounting the limitations posed by a single runway at Goa International Airport, which has seen an exponential increase in air traffic in the last few years.
Besides the new taxi track, new state of the art navigational equipment like ‘Instrument Landing’ system to enhance the multi-directional and all-weather landing capacity of the runway, have also been installed,” sources added.
