India’s first runway bridge in Chennai, the capital of Southern State, Tamil Nadu will be put in use as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to open the extended second runway in 10 days.

The runway and its bridge across the Adyar river, which is one of the two rivers which winds through Chennai, received safety clearance from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, The Times of India reported.

The runway was closed for extension work in 2009. With the opening of the second runway, aviation experts said flight handling at Chennai airport would increase from 27 per hour to at least 40.

However, planes coming in to land will not touch down on the bridge though AAI had been claiming the bridge had been constructed to withstand landing weight of an A380 aircraft, said the report.

It has been decided to mark the touchdown point from the Manapakkam side after the bridge because of two reasons - to provide required safety buffer zone at the end of the runway and DGCA’s reluctance to take a risk on the bridge.

But flights will roll over the bridge during take-off, said the English language daily.

With the opening of this runway, Chennai will have two operational runways. Airport authorities expect that they can soon start the simultaneous landing and take-off.

Delhi airport, with three runways, handles around 78 flights per hour and Bombay with two runways handles 42 flights per hour.

Airlines will also benefit from the two functional runways as flights need not be cancelled or rescheduled for the four-hour closure of the main runway every week for maintenance.

“We can do proper maintenance work if the secondary runway is available,” the report quoted an unnamed AAI official as saying.

- Bernama