Delhi
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is going to start the first elevated cross taxiway on 13 July. Along with this, the fourth runway is also to be inaugurated at the airport. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will inaugurate the 2.1-kilometre long dual lane elevated cross taxiway and the roads passing under it.
After the inauguration, the taxiway will reduce the waiting time of passengers sitting in the plane from 20-25 minutes to 10-12 minutes. There will be significant savings in this time for the passengers before take-off and after landing. Because it will connect the northern and southern airfields and reduce the taxi distance for the aircraft from 9 km to just 2.1 km.
According to IP Rao, deputy managing director of GMR, which operates the IGI airport, “ECT will help enhance passenger experience by reducing the time spent by passengers on the tarmac after landing and before take-off.”
The lane taxiway is designed to be able to handle larger aircraft. For wide-body jets such as the A380, B777, and B747, the Eastern Cross taxiway will have two 44-metre wide lanes with a 47-metre gap between them to allow two large aircraft to pass safely and simultaneously.
According to GMR, the central structure of the taxiway is very strong. It consists of 590 girders. Each one weighs 90 metric tons. No damage is going to be done to the roads even after the explosion of TNT/RDX. It has also been made keeping in mind the seismic zone Zone-4.
