Indira Gandhi International Airport

From ArticleWorld

The most famous airport of India , "Palam", was renamed Indira Gandhi International Airport, after the name of late Prime Minister of India, Mrs., Indira Gandhi (daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru), and is located in the city of New Delhi. This airport is India’s main domestic and international gateway. The two codes given to it are: IATA’s DEL and ICAO and airport code as VIDP. IGI, as it is generally known, has been launched along with a new international building as Terminal 2 on 2nd of May, 1986. Then, the old airport was used for domestic operations. The airport comprises of two runways. The main runway: 10-28 (12500 feet)and an auxiliary runway: 9-27(9,229 feet). The main runway is one of Asia’s famous runways equipped with CAT III –B Instrument landing System.

Tragedies

In spite of all the pride and acquisitions, the Indian aviation history has had its share of tragic and traumatic events, too. On 23rd of June, 1985, Air India Flight 182 exploded in the air while on its Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai route, killing almost all its passengers and crew traveling in it. Again on 12th of Nov. 1996, Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747, while taking off, collided with a Kazakhstan Airplane killing passengers in both the planes.

The Air India plane has also faced a bad experience of high jacking on the eve of Christmas in 1999, when 814 flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to IGI airport. The plane was routed through different regions of South Asia and Southwest Asia. It was however a lesser calamity as one passenger was killed by the highjackers and the rest were freed.

Barring these few incidents, The Indian Aviation history has had a better disaster record compared to other well known names across the world, in aviation. The IGI Airport is not only the best Airport in India, but also respected name in the International value and signature of modernization of India.