The Vellore Airport at Abdullapuram in Tamil Nadu will be starting operations soon after the completion of subsequent tests, the airport officials have said. They added that the preliminary signal testing for take-off and landing has been successfully completed at the airport and the steps to start flight services soon are underway.
Testing at the Vellore airport
A preliminary test was done on Sunday to see if the lights which have specially been set up near the runway are visible during the day and if the signal from the information control room and the signal tower is received.
As per the officials, the first phase of the test flight seen at the airport linked to signal and lights has seen success. Now next the officials will land the aircraft on the runway and test it.
The officials said they have applied for permission to operate the aircraft, adding that the permission will be granted soon and flight services from the airport will commence soon.
Besides this, under the preliminary tests, a test aircraft that belonged to the Air Transport Commission was flown from New Delhi to Vellore via Chennai. It was tested by ow-flying five times near the Abdullapuram airstrip. Post that it was inspected by three people, including a pilot from New Delhi’s Aircraft Inspection Unit.
While the testing was going on, an ambulance and a fire engine were kept handy near the airport runway as a precautionary safety measure.
The airport, which has been seeing renovation work since 2017, will witness small planes (having the capacity to carry 19 passengers) operating from there to Chennai, Bengaluru, Tirupati and other cities. An 850-meter-long runway has been constructed for it.
The works including the airport terminal, cargo terminal, information control room, radar equipment, signal tower, station office, and passenger waiting room renovation works have been completed so far.
(With ANI inputs