Indigo flight 6E-137 receives a water cannon salute by Indian Air Force for being the first flight to traverse through the newly constructed portion of the extended runway in Jammu

The operationalisation of the extended portion of runway has been successfully done at the joint user airfield of the IAF and Airports Authority of India at Jammu, says Sanjeev Kumar Garg, Jammu airport director

After a wait of over a decade, the Jammu airport, one of the critical airports in the country, finally got 8,000ft-long runway operational on Friday with Indigo flight 6E-137 being the first to be traversing through the newly constructed stretch amid a water canon salute by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

“The operationalisation of the extended portion of runway has been successfully done at the joint user airfield of the IAF and Airports Authority of India (AAI) at Jammu,” said Sanjeev Kumar Garg, Jammu airport director.

The existing runway, which was 6,700ft long, was extended and the revised stretch of runway is now 8,000 ft, he added.

The work was completed by Airports Authority of India in coordination with Indian Air Force and Military Engineering Service.

On the occasion, Air Commodore GS Bhullar, AOC 23rd Wing IAF, Jammu airport director Garg and other officials from Airports Authority of India, Indian Air Force, Military Engineering Service, Airlines and Central Industrial Security Force were present.

In addition to the runway, 2,800 metres of boundary wall and rigid pavement perimeter road was also constructed.

“A turn pad designed for Airbus 321 was also constructed under this project,” said Garg.

AOC, IAF, hailed the coordination of AAI, MES and IAF for successful completion of this project.

Garg also thanked all the agencies involved in this project, especially the engineering team of AAI, and said that the construction of the new terminal building of Jammu airport at Belicharana, which will commence shortly, will be instrumental in the development of Jammu and Kashmir.

As per a survey by the Director General of Civil Aviation, the Jammu airport was on the list of 11 “critical” airfields of the country.

With the Tawi flowing on one side and a rivulet (nullah) and densely populated localities on the other side of Jammu airport, the flights were using 6,700-ft-long runway.

An official said that in the second phase, the AAI plans to increase the strip by another 1,000 ft.

“When we had 6,700ft-long runway, the flights were not operating to their full capacity load and the pilots had been facing difficulty during landings and take-offs,” he added.