The country’s sole international airport- Tribhuvan International Airport remained closed for a moment after a crack was spotted on the runway today. Due to which, half dozen of the aircrafts were hold on the air and most of the airlines failed to operate flights according to their schedule.
The airport service was halted after the problem was seen on the runway today at 11:10 am. Raj kumar Chhetri, General Manager of TIA claimed the airport service has resumed after 20 minutes. Such problems have been repeatedly spotted on TIA’s runway mostly during monsoon season.
Although tender had been awarded to various construction companies for the amendment of the runway but, lack of the project initiation has resulted the problem on TIA runway time and again mainly during monsoon. General Manager Chhetri informed, such minor problems are resolved by operating the maintenance team instantly. He further added TIA is equipped with immediate patch work team and technology to dry it within half an hour.
Difficulty on landing raised by the runway crack had made aircrafts of Qatar Airways, Biman Bangladesh, Jet Air and Nepal Airlines to hold on the sky. Whereas aircrafts of Buddha Air and Yeti Air on internal flights were diverted back to their departing airport.
Experts have been suggesting for the construction of new runway and maintenance of the currently used runway since many years. But presence of only one runway at TIA has even created problem during repairment. Authority has said that it would take minimum of a year for the maintenance of the runway.
TIA being the only international airport of Nepal, such problems have been rising up because of heavy congestion. Many officals and expertise expects that runway problems at TIA to be bottom lined after the completion of Gautam Buddha International Airport.
