diff --git a/channels/management/commands/runserver.py b/channels/management/commands/runserver.py
index e52b018..e2c0814 100644
--- a/channels/management/commands/runserver.py
+++ b/channels/management/commands/runserver.py
@@ -24,10 +24,13 @@ class Command(RunserverCommand):
             help='Tells Django not to run a worker thread; you\'ll need to run one separately.')
         parser.add_argument('--noasgi', action='store_false', dest='use_asgi', default=True,
             help='Run the old WSGI-based runserver rather than the ASGI-based one')
+        parser.add_argument('--http_timeout', action='store', dest='http_timeout', type=int, default=60,
+            help='Specify the daphane http_timeout interval in seconds (default: 60)')
 
     def handle(self, *args, **options):
         self.verbosity = options.get("verbosity", 1)
         self.logger = setup_logger('django.channels', self.verbosity)
+        self.http_timeout = options.get("http_timeout", 60)
         super(Command, self).handle(*args, **options)
 
     def inner_run(self, *args, **options):
@@ -80,7 +83,7 @@ class Command(RunserverCommand):
                 port=int(self.port),
                 signal_handlers=not options['use_reloader'],
                 action_logger=self.log_action,
-                http_timeout=60,  # Shorter timeout than normal as it's dev
+                http_timeout=self.http_timeout,
                 ws_protocols=getattr(settings, 'CHANNELS_WS_PROTOCOLS', None),
             ).run()
             self.logger.debug("Daphne exited")