Coming soon at airport: hi-tech control, new tower

New Delhi: While fog and technical snags have left the IGI Airport grounded for hours this season — operations were briefly disrupted even early Tuesday morning after two radar screens of the ATC tower went blank in quick succession — here’s finally some good news. Air traffic controllers at the country’s busiest airport would soon get the latest and more sophisticated Air Traffic Control (ATC) software.
For ATC officials manning the control tower amid space constraints, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) would soon construct a new control tower near the upcoming terminal T3 of IGI Airport.
“The new tower would be higher than the present one, to stand at approximately 70 metres,” AAI chairman V P Agrawal told Newsline.
Top sources have told Newsline that the new tower would be constructed by 2011. “It is part of the second phase of expansion of the Delhi Airport master plan,” a source said. “While air traffic control would be shifted to the new tower sooner, all other technical process would shift by 2015.
“The bigger tower would help us fight space congestion we are currently facing at the existing ATC tower.”
In another fortnight, the ATC system would make its shift to a new software that proposes to help Delhi fight air congestion as well.
29/01/10 Geeta Gupta/Indian Express

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, New Jan 2010