Descending on Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport would now be a multi-religious sight for air travellers, as well as for other commuters passing the airport on National Highway-8. The Birla Kanan, which sports a massive 80-foot-tall statue of Shiva on NH-8, will soon have another structure: a 54-feet statue of Buddha.

The venue of the two giant statues is just over a kilometre from the tip of the IGI Airport’s newest runway, 29-11.

The Shiva statue was considered a hazard to flights only after the third runway — touted as India’s longest — became operational last year.

The location of the statues, present and upcoming, is in the funnel area of landing: the point from where an aircraft begins to descend. The result? Of what is touted as the longest runway, only 2,443 metres out of the 4,430 metres can actually be used.

In effect, this makes it the shortest runway: 133 metres shorter than the shortest runway, 27-09, which stands at 2,310 metres.

The Shiva statue is a total of 80 feet above the ground — 65 metres of actual statue plus the 15-foot pedestal — and has been an obstruction for pilots approaching to land on the runway from the east. Pilots say they have to keep the statue in mind before beginning the final descent for touchdown.

But even as another statue waits to make its place near the runway, pilots insist there is nothing to worry till electronic devices installed on the runway are working fine.

“The statue needs us to maintain a certain vertical distance as a mandatory requirement,” a senior pilot said. “But so long as the instrument landing system works fine, there is no problem. The only issue is, a major portion of the runway remains under-utilised.

“But this is just a statue — there are mountains around certain airstrips, and we land safely.”

Air traffic controllers say the statues pose little problem. Pilots, they say, just need to fly above the obstruction, keeping in mind the normal descent profile while landing — located at a displacement of 1,400 metres from the tip of the runway.

“There is no problem with departures from the runway. Landing on runway 29-11 from the eastern side, where the Shiva statue is situated, takes place at a displacement of 1,400 metres,” said V Somasundaram, executive director (air traffic management), Airports Authority of India.

The Shiva statue was built by the B K Birla Trust in March 1994. But after construction on the runway began in 2006, the private airport developer, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), raised the issue of obstruction from the statue. The only concrete decision taken that time was to increase the length of the runway on the western side — at a very high cost.

‘Ready before Games’
The creator of the Buddha statue, artist Naresh Verma, said it would be ready before the Commonwealth Games next October. “A lot of foreigners visit the Shiva statue, with an average footfall of 20,000 visitors every month,” he said, “and the Commonwealth Games would get more foreign visitors here.”

Captain R P Sharma, an ex-Serviceman who is also the caretaker of the Birla Kanan, said all requisite permissions to construct the Buddha statue have been taken from the Aviation ministry. “These are not statues,” Sharma said. “These are monuments that cannot be demolished.”

The idea behind the creation of Buddha is to make this an iconic piece of land depicting peace, Verma, 31, said. “The Buddha statue would stand 54 feet tall,” Sharma said.