Tower target for safe airport

Patna: The historical clock tower of the secretariat may have to be pulled down as part of a plan to remove the obstacles along the approach funnel of the Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport.
The government has drawn up a list of measures to make the airport safe following observations of the directorate-general of civil aviation that the obstacles had rendered the airport “not fit” for operation of bigger aircraft like Airbus 320s and Boeing 737s.
Pilots operating on the Patna route have no margin of error. The actual runway length is 2,286 metres (7,500 feet approximately), which is below the ideal 8,000 feet required for Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. Owing to obstacles along the approach funnel, pilots can use just 1,820 metres (5,970 feet) if they land from the eastern side (Runway 25) and 1,677 metres (5,500 feet) if they land from the west (Runway 7).
A high level meeting was convened a few days ago by the cabinet coordination department in which representatives from departments concerned as well those from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) took part.
A major outcome of the meeting was an agreement to reduce the height of the state secretariat clock tower. The participants, a highly placed state government source told The Telegraph, agreed that the tower height needed to be reduced by 11.5 metres.
21/08/10 Sanjeev Kumar Verma/The Telegraph

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Categories: airports aug 2010, Safety Aug 2010