KATHMANDU, Aug 3: Recurring cracks on the runway have been disrupting flights at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) almost daily for the past few weeks. The disruption lasts from a few minutes to more than half an hour. However, airport authorities are not carrying out standard maintenance for smooth operation of the runway.

TIA officials have admitted that they have stopped repairing the cracks with high quality hot mix asphalt citing higher prices and are using weaker cold mix asphalt instead. The airport was closed twice Friday for over 40 minutes for maintenance. Several international and domestic flights were affected and few were put on hold in the sky.

 
• tia
 
• halts
 
• operation
 
• runaway
 
• maintenance