Airport security radar can’t be installed due to garbage

Mumbai: Any airport worth its salt around the globe has an Airport Surface Movement Ground Control System (ASMGCS).
Considering the threat of terror attacks and the spate of near-misses in the recent past, a system to track all surface movement is a must at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
However, even one year after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) spent Rs 8 crore on an ASMGCS, it has failed to install the radars for reasons that are embarrassing.
An American team, here last week to help the AAI meet its September-end deadline for the Surface Movement Radars (SMRs), has gone back without installing them.
The reasons it cites: the tower the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set up is surrounded by garbage, so precarious that it reverberates when the antenna moves at a certain speed, has too thin a shelter, parts of which are missing, and does not have a water-proof hatch.
These are a few among the ten scathing criticisms notes in the meeting between representatives of the US-based Raytheon and the AAI.
20/08/10 Alka Shukla/Mumbai Mirror

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Categories: airports aug 2010