'8-crore ground radar lies unused at Kolkata airport'

Kolkata: A sophisticated system acquired over a year ago to track vehicle movement within the operational area at Kolkata airport is yet to be installed. By the time it becomes operational, the warranty will be over.
The airport surface movement ground control system (ASMGCS), purchased for over Rs 8 crore and shipped to Kolkata from Holland last June (the equipment cleared the Customs at Kolkata Port on June 7 and 8, 2008), has been lying idle since. Engineers said that even if installation work begins soon, warranty will expire by the time it goes online. The warranty for the system provided by Dutch firm HITT expires this December.
The warranty on ASMGCS ends 18 months after shipment or 12 months after commissioning, whichever is earlier. Give that it takes over a month to ship the equipment from Europe to India and another fortnight to process the documents at either ends, 16 months are already over since the date of shipment. With only two months left before the warranty expires, officials at the airport acknowledged that installing the system in two months was impossible.
The ASMGCS comprises three types of equipment surface movement radar (SMR), multilateration transponder (MLAT) and auto detection system (ADS-B). While the two SMRs are to be installed near the runway, 12 MLATs will be strategically up in to cover the entire operational area.
08/08/10 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India

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Categories: airports aug 2010