NEW DELHI: The fourth runway at IGI airport is likely to get operational this April. Once that happens, the main workhorse runway (28) will be shut for major repairs, said senior officials. However, aircraft handling capacity will not be affected as three runways will be operational even at that time.“Permission for demolishing three floors of an Airports Authority of India building which obstruct aircraft movement on the upcoming fourth runway has just been received. The work will hopefully be over in the next few weeks. Once the procedures are finalised, we hope to have the fourth runway ready and in use by April,” said people in the know of the matter.Work on runway 28, the main runway that lies between T1 and T3/2, is expected to finish by August.The expanded T1 is expected to be ready by September, after which it will be able to handle four crore passengers annually — more than double its original 1.6 crore capacity, the sources said. The elevated taxiway — India’s first — will also get operational this year.Meanwhile, passengers flying out of T1 and T2 can also use the paperless biometric-based DigiYatra (DY) option. Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) has installed a DY gate at T1, 2 and 3, said an official. As usage grows, the number of such gates will increase eventually, with the operator expecting all but one gate at the terminals to be DY-enabled.Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has set stiff targets for increased use of tech at IGI airport, which the government is aiming to develop as the country’s first real mega hub.“DY app has 3 lakh downloads so far. The adoption rates in Delhi and Bengaluru are creeping up. In Varanasi, it is almost 20%. I urge the Delhi and Bengaluru airports to improve adoption rates and I would request the airlines to drive extremely hard to promote ease of travel for passengers,” Scindia said at an Assocham event Wednesday.DY, which enables paperless travel through biometric facial recognition technology, has been partially rolled out in Delhi, Bengaluru and Varanasi. Iris scan confirms the identity of DY-registered passengers who don’t need to show physical ID proof and their travel details are captured by the tech. By March this year, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Vijayawada airports will also get the facility.To use this facility, one-time registration on the app is required using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture. There is no central storage of personally identifiable information (PII). A passenger’s ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the smartphone itself.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/4th-airstrip-at-igi-likely-to-be-ready-by-april/articleshow/97147797.cms