Mangaluru (PTI): In a milestone achievement, the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) has completed recarpeting work on its 2.45 km-long runway.

The unique aspect of the project, aimed at meeting compliance norms laid down by aviation safety regulator and completed on May 28 in 75 working days from March 10, is the flexible overlay of asphalt on rigid runway, which is the first of its kind in India, a release from the MIA here said.

The airport initiated the preliminary survey work on the project on January 27.

The MIA is the second busiest airport in Karnataka, handling around 36 aircraft movements every day. The airport used 8.52 hours NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) from 9.30 am to 6 pm each day to recarpet the runway without impacting operations of scheduled flights.

During the 75 days and 529 hours it took to complete the project, the MIA kept the runway open daily for 18 domestic and international flights on an average during the remaining hours of the day.

In keeping with the brand's continued endeavour to improve operational efficiency and reduce inconvenience to passengers, the airport extended the NOTAM to Sunday as well from March 19, which helped the airport complete the work in the period involving 2.51 lakh safe manhours in 75 working days.

The project saw the use of 81,696 tonnes of asphalt equivalent to laying 82-km road, using 80 sophisticated pieces of equipment.

Keeping in mind safety of future operations, MIA has made provision for installation of runway centre lighting. The airport executive leadership has lauded the airport team for completing the project ahead of schedule, the release said.

 

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New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.

Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.

The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.

On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.

Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.

Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.

A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.