Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has announced plans of commencing the work of tarring the new runway next month.
Managing Director of MACL Adil Moosa told PSM News that the work of the new runway is progressing at a fast pace as per the given timeline, with lights and fuel hydrants being installed on the runway. With the completion of the new runway, the existing runway would be used as a taxiway.
MACL revealed that with the completion of the new runways it would solve the issues faced due to overcrowding as the project would see the development of a cargo complex; with a storage capacity of 120,000 tonnes and a fuel farm with a storage capacity of 45 million litres.
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The development of Velana International Airport (VIA) is the largest infrastructure project conducted by the administration of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom. The USD 1 billion mega development project is developed in two phases. The first phase of the project, which costs USD 400 million, would see the development of a 3,400-metre long 65-metre wide runway. The first phase of the project, which is contracted to China-based Beijing Urban Construction Group, has now completed the work of leveling and reclaiming a land area of 77 hectares for the new runway.
The company started applying the sub-base of the new runway in 2016. The sub-base is often the main load-bearing layer of a runway and such layers are currently used in the construction of various highways and runways worldwide. Three layers of the sub-base would be laid in the newly developed runway, according to MACL.