The development comes less than a month ahead of the airport’s scheduled shutdown for a fortnight (from April 11) for repairs. The airport’s runway and ATC service are managed by the Indian Air Force.
The crack on the tarmac was detected at 9.42am and flights were immediately suspended. Bagdogra-bound flights that were en route were turned back or diverted. Those that were yet to take off were asked to stay put in various airports. In all, around 7,000 passengers were stranded as emergency repairs were undertaken. Passengers who were on flights to Bagdogra had to be diverted to another airport, including Kolkata, where they had to wait several hours. The the airport was declared operational at 5.15pm.
There were 26 flights scheduled to operate to Bagdogra on Tuesday. We are trying to ensure that most of the fights operate so that passengers are not inconvenienced,” said airport director P Subramani.
Passengers were, however, inconvenienced. Urmi Dewan, who was flying to Bagdogra from Mumbai, took to Twitter to vent her frustration over lack of communication from the airline. She claimed she had received no information from the airline about why her flight had been diverted. “What a mess. Nobody is giving any info. We’re just waiting at Kolkata airport,” wrote at 12.05pm. Nitish Singh, a flyer from Delhi whose flight was also diverted to Kolkata, also took to Twitter, saying his airline “did not know in advance” about the runway damage.
The airport has already announced a closure from April 11 to April 25 to carry out the final stage of repairs in the middle portion of the runway. “The runway repair work was being done at night for the past two years. Work had started from either end and has now reached the middle section, for which a shutdown is needed. The final top layer of the runway will be laid. That will take around two weeks. A notice to airmen has been issued about the closure. Tuesday’s closure was unscheduled. We are confident there will be normal scheduled operations from Wednesday,” the director said.