Hundreds of passengers had a harrowing time on Wednesday as flights to Dimapur were delayed and diverted to Agartala due to waterlogging on the runway caused by heavy showers from late Tuesday night to wee hours of Wednesday.
IndiGo flights (Dimapur to Delhi and Kolkata) were diverted to Agartala and delayed for nearly six hours while Air India flight which usually leaves for Guwahati at 1.50 p.m. departed only at around 6.30 p.m.
Despite flagging the issue of waterlogging, which has been a regular feature, no concrete step has been initiated.
The runway is situated at a low-lying area and during heavy rains, water flows from the upper slope of the National Highway including a drain of the erstwhile sugar mills.
One of the main reasons for waterlogging is when rain water flowing to the lower end cannot flow through the drain (under the runway), due to higher elevation of around eight feet high towards Chathe river
It may be recalled that the airport was waterlogged on two occasions- May and October, causing disruption and cancellation of flights.
Officials told Nagaland Post that flights can land and take off only if water logging was a maximum of around 3 mm. However, in recent instances it was as much as 60mm.
Waterlogging has become a primary safety concern for pilots to land in such conditions as it could lead to overrunning/skidding off the runway.
Another concern is that at times, if waterlogging is spread along the length of the runway, it would shorten the landing area needed. The runway at Dimapur airport is around 7500 feet while an Airbus A319 requires around 4300 feet length for landing. If waterlogging is spread to around 500 feet or more than a plane landing will have to touchdown beyond 500 feet and it also cannot taxi to the extreme length of the runway. If an emergency occurs the plane will not have safe space before coming to halt.
Despite being among the oldest airports, Dimapur has among the worst passenger facilities and cannot handle more than 200 to 300 passengers. Presently around 500 passengers travel to and from Dimapur on four daily flights. Incoming passengers have to walk to the terminal from the aircraft on landing.
Presently aircrafts to Dimapur, have to approach from Imphal side, circle around Peren and Dimapur before approaching the runway.
This also results in consumption of more aviation fuel. The only solution to solve the problem is to look for Greenfield airport towards 5th mile area, having orientation of 050 degrees and 230 degrees, North, South direction enabling use of both directions without restrictions.
A new Greenfield airport can come at Chümoukedima as land for a 10,000 feet runway is available.
Sufficient land can be made available to enable future development into an international airport.