Prayagraj: In a major development, which promises much-needed fillip to the operations of passenger-flight to and from Prayagraj, now the Civil Enclave of the city would be open for night landing of flights.
This follows the formal approval granted by the Indian Air Force for starting this vital facility, infrastructure for, which was already installed at the Civil Enclave by Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“Requisite permissions have now been granted by Indian Air Force (IAF) for starting this vital facility at the airport located at Bamrauli and airlines operating flights here would now be able to avail it,” said regional director of AAI, Prayagraj, Achal Prakash.
The Prayagraj Airport Advisory Board was informed of this development by the IAF representative in a virtual meeting of the board held last week.
The decision is considered to be important as once night landing of flights starts, Prayagraj airport would join the ranks of Lucknow and Varanasi airports, with more flights landing or taking off.
“The permission for night landing of flights is a welcome news and now the airlines would be able to start using this facility as per their need and flight schedules,” said Prakash.
This also promises operation of more flights for the city as there would not be any compulsion of operating between dawn to dusk, he added.
The AAI has already installed the necessary infrastructure for starting the facility including CAT-1 (category-1) lights along the runway at a cost of around Rs 1 crore that clearly mark the runway for the approaching pilots to help them land their aircraft even in low visibility or during night hours when visibility is limited to as low as 800 metres.
The airport is also equipped with instrument landing system, which is vital facility for night landing facility.
Officials said IAF’s clearance for starting night landing was needed as though the airport is owned and run by the AAI, the runway is owned by IAF.
Terminal manager, Prayagraj airport, Shyam Kartik Singh said the advisory board meeting chaired by Phulpur MP Keshari Devi Patel and attended by representatives of AAI, IAF, district administration, PWD, Prayagraj Nagar Nigam among others, also discussed connecting the airport with the proposed metro rail service of Sangam City in the first phase so that commuting to and from the airport became faster, easier and economical.
During the meeting, ADM (city) AK Kanaujia said financial approval for providing a four-lane connectivity to the airport had been received and work in this regard would also begin soon.
Work for construction of a new drainage system at the airport to prevent waterlogging would also start within the next five days.
Discussions on putting in place a robust system for waste disposal as well as increasing number of security personnel at the airport too were held.
The airport has a sanctioned strength of 144 workers and officials but has just 86 presently posted here.
In operation since December 2019, the Civil Enclave provides direct air connectivity to number of cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Raipur, Kolkata, Pune and Gorakhpur besides Bhopal, Dehradun and Bhubaneswar.