Mumbai airport reopens main runway after battling heavy rainfall for 4 days

Mumbai airport has opened its main runway operations which was shutdown since a few days after a mishap.
It so happened that a SpiceJet airplane skidded off the runway on landing in the middle of heavy downpour. The plane Boeing 737 skewed off to the grassy land in between the runway and taxiway. After the mishap, the operations of the main runway were discontinued until Friday evening.

The aircraft was cleared from the main runway by 3:41 PM and the services from the runway restarted by 4:47 PM.

News has it that due to the shutdown of the main runway more than 30 flights were either delayed or cancelled since the night of Monday, July 1. Mumbai airport itself handles about 1,000 flight arrivals and departures every day, thus, being the second busiest airport in India. The airport was operating from an alternative runway during the shutdown which can handle up to 35 airplane movements every hour as against 48 flight movements of the main runway. The stranded SpiceJet aircraft was towed away by the team employed by Air India Engineering Services.

According to the latest news reports, Mumbai will continue to experience non-stop downpour of rain in the coming days. In addition, a high tide is also expected to hit the Maximum City. The city is clogged with rain water at different sections, and there have been cases of missing persons in some areas. It is yet another difficult monsoon for the residents of Mumbai and nearby cities.