Kullu to get runway over river

New Delhi: It's no flight of fancy. The country could soon gets its first "bridge-on-river-cum-runway".
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to extend the about 1,450-metre-long runway at Kullu so that it can accommodate bigger aircraft as at present only ATRs or smaller planes can land there.
The plan is to increase the length by about a kilometre so that the Airbus can also come here and boost local tourism by increasing the carriage capacity at perhaps lower fares.
Sources said AAI has asked IIT (Roorkee) to study two option diverting the river and a bridge on the river without altering its course.
The option of diverting river is learnt to be more 'complicated' as it would involve acquiring vast tracts of land for the new course. IIT will now study the bridge option, which despite being a costly affair seems more achievable to aviation experts.
The problem with Kullu is that planes have to land from one side only in the morning as later in the day this area gets strong tail winds. Which means that the runway has to be extended towards the river only.
19/02/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: airports feb 2007, New feb 2007