Mangalore: Mangalore International Airport’s plans for additional taxiways have borne fruit, with construction started and completion expected by February 2016.PCC Constructions, a Mumbai-based company, has bagged the Rs. 35-crore contract of building the new taxiways.

The additional parallel taxiways will help the MIA to handle aircraft one after the other.

Once the parallel 600 x 23 mtr taxiway s ready, there will be separate and fixed entry and exit paths on both the ends and a departing flight can move till the end of it, wait there and enter the runway as soon as the arriving aircraft is off the runway.

The MIA currently has two terminal buildings and two runways. Now only one taxiway is used for both entry and exit from the runway. One taxi track connects the new terminal building at Kenjar to the relatively new concrete runway on the west and the other one connects old terminal building at Bajpe to the old and mostly unused runway on the east.

It is learnt, that as of now, aircraft that are ready to take off have to wait for 10 to 15 minutes if their departure timing clashes with a flight that is about to land, due to the procedures involved – It has to wait till the arriving plane completes its course on the runway and rolls into the parking area (apron) at the terminal building.