Rs 200cr to upgrade radar system for air traffic safety at Calcutta

Calcutta: A Rs-200cr grant for equipment upgrade promises to make the city airport the safest in the country.
The civil aviation ministry sanctioned the amount keeping in view the growing importance of the airport. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Calcutta is now the busiest in India at night.
The regional chapter of the Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild (India) had written several times to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in 2006 stressing the need for the latest surveillance equipment. The upgrade of the ATC was not originally a part of the Rs-1542cr airport modernisation plan.
State-of-the-art LCD monitors will replace the seven radar monitor sets at the airport, said an AAI official. The monitors are in use for almost 10 years.
About 1,000 planes overfly the ATC daily.
The Calcutta ATC controls flight movement in three zones — till Myanmar in the east, Vishakhapatnam in the south and Raipur in the west. There is no back-up radar for these zones. “There is also no back-up for the approach radar,” said the official.
The approach radar controls the landing and take-off of aircraft. During peak hours, an ATC officer has to handle take-off and landing of 12 flights.
16/05/07 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports May 2007, Safety May 2007