The Department of Civil Engineering of National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), in association with the Mangalore Airport Diamond Jubilee Celebration Committee, will conduct a two-day workshop on ‘Table-top airports and safety aspect' in Mangalore on October 29-30.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Prof Sandeep Sancheti, Director of NITK, said that the workshop provides a platform for exchange of latest ideas and concepts concerning table-top airports. It would be of interest to all professionals, educationists, researchers associated with airports and navigation systems.
Other places
India has table-top airports in Kozhikode in Kerala, Lengpui in Mizoram, Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Leh in Laddakh and Mangalore in Karnataka. Mangalore airport was under sharp focus following the plane crash in 2010.
Mr Tejomaya, Convenor of Mangalore Airport Diamond Jubilee Celebration Committee, said that Mangalore airport's runway, on which the ill-fated plane touched down, has handled over 32,000 successful landings since it was commissioned in 2006.
This underlines the fact that landing a plane on a table-top airstrip should not be a problem for pilots with normal training.
He said that the workshop has been organised to clear apprehensions in the minds of people about table-top airports. The workshop will emphasise the need to extend the present runway in order to handle international flights and to upgrade the other facilities to international standards, he said.
The Union Corporate Affairs Minister, Mr M. Veerappa Moily, will inaugurate the workshop on October 29.
Mr D. Devaraj, Regional Executive Director, Southern Region, Airports Authority of India, Chennai, will deliver the keynote address on the occasion.
Tech sessions
There will be technical sessions on ‘airport operations and economics', ‘table-top airports, ‘runway extension and associated problems', and ‘airport planning and construction' among others.
Domain experts from various sectors related to airport would speak at the technical sessions.
(A table-top airport is surrounded by deep gorges. Normally constructed by chopping of the top of a hill, table-top airports are often thought of as tricky for landing aircraft because of gorges all around the airport. There are special procedures in place to deal with a table-top landing.)