Airport launch hits rough weather

Bangalore/New Delhi: In the wake of air safety concerns raised by an incomplete Air Traffic Control (ATC) facility, top Civil Aviation Ministry officials will meet early next week to take a final decision on whether to operationalise the airport on March 30 as scheduled or put it off.
Highly placed ministry sources told Deccan Herald that the issue of the commercial launch was “still open”.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) personnel working on the ATC facility are learnt to have categorically told a visiting Civil Aviation committee that they had to get at least a month’s training on the various equipment before the ATC could be commissioned.
According to the standard norm followed worldwide, after a calibration flight, the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management (CNS-ATM) equipment attached to the ATC are to be kept in hot standby mode for 1,000 hours. This is to help the system get stabilised and the personnel get familiarised with the working. The sources said in the next few days, officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), AAI and the Ministry would coordinate with all the departments concerned, to see whether the airport could be readied for launch by March 30.
08/03/08 Rasheed Kappan and B S Arun/Deccan Herald

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Categories: Airports Mar 2008, New Mar 2008