Repair work on the main runway of Mumbai airport was cancelled for the day on Friday due to heavy rains in the city suburbs.
The main runway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSMIA) has been under major rehabilitation and re-carpeting work since November 4. It is closed from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm from Mondays to Saturdays till March 28 next year. During the course of the work, all flight operations are being operated from the secondary runway.
However, after cancellation of repair work on Friday due to rains, flight operations were carried out from the main runway instead of the secondary runway.
The spokesperson of the airport operator – Mumbai International AIrport Ltd (MIAL) – said that the flight operations were normal. However, flightradar24, a Swedish internet- based service that shows real- time commercial aircraft flight information on a map, showed flight departures to be delayed for around 30 minutes. However, arrivals almost remained unaffected with a minimum of five minutes.
CSMIA, the second busiest airport of the country after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport, has two intersecting runways, 09-27 which is the main runway, and 14-32 which is the secondary or the lesser efficient runway.
It handles around 50 arrivals and departures every hour and over 900 movements per day.
MIAL had to post pone the repair work from November 1 to November 4 due to prolonged monsoon in the city.
Besides curtailing flight operations, light to moderate showers during the early hours in Mumbai suburbs led to traffic jams in many parts of the city. The showers were a result of the tropical cyclone Maha weakening into a depression.
The weather bureau has issued a forecast for light to moderate rain or thundershowers through the day on Friday and Saturday.
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