Jamshedpur: Stepping up efforts to increase the runway at the Tata Steel-owned Sonari Airport to make Jamshedpur-Calcutta flights feasible, a joint team of district administration, civic body and Tata Steel land department will on Friday physically verify obstacles in the way of expansion.
This was decided on Thursday at a meeting chaired by East Singhbhum DC Amit Kumar and attended by Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee special officer Sanjay Kumar Pandey and Tata Steel chief (corporate affairs) Rituraj Sinha at the district collectorate.
Tata Steel aviation wing sources said the usable runway at Sonari Airport was over 872m long, but the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) specified nearly 1,200m, prompting authorities to mull the best possible use of unused space at the airport and if needed expand the runway towards the Kadma side.
At airports with short runways, even experienced pilots face problems in touchdown and take-off.
"We will conduct a physical verification of the funnel zone (read the controlled airspace around an airport where high-rise buildings are banned for aircraft safety) in Kadma and Sonari to find if any new G+3 high-rise without valid permission has come up in the restricted area. We have also hired Chennai-based Go Soft e Solutions specialising in cartography and airport surveys using GIS applications, who have started surveying the funnel zone. This report will be presented to the DGCA officials in Delhi," the DC said.
The report would be tabled at a meeting called by Union civil aviation secretary R.N. Choubey on June 11 in Delhi on the feasibility of Jamshedpur-Calcutta flights under the Centre's regional connectivity scheme. DGCA and Airports Authority of India officials and DC Kumar will attend it.
Recently, Air Deccan that bagged a bid under regional connectivity scheme for the Jamshedpur-Calcutta route and was scheduled to start this February, postponed plans citing load restrictions imposed by DGCA in operating a 19-seater aircraft.
Flight service between Jamshedpur and Calcutta debuted in 2007 with Air Deccan, but was grounded after DGCA imposed load restrictions owing to the short runway.
