IAF, AAI wake up to ILS fuss

Srinagar: After a year of discord, the Indian Air Force and the Airports Authority of India seem to have woken up to the commissioning of the Instrumentation Landing System (ILS) at the Srinagar ‘International’ Airport, with the two agencies meeting on Monday (November 15) to “sort out” the issue which has brought them at loggerheads with each other.
“We have called a meeting on Monday to sort out the issue,” said the Srinagar-based AAI Director, Capt Raj K Malik, when asked if the ILS was being commissioned. “We are hopeful that something positive will come out and we are able to reach to some conclusion,” he said.
The vital equipment, worth Rs 2 crore, is waiting commissioning for the past one year when the Airports Authority of India installed it at the Srinagar aerodrome to ensure easy landing of flights in poor visibility conditions.
The Monday’s meeting, according to sources, comes in the wake of severe criticism that the IAF and the AAI have been pocketing over the issue.
The AAI installed the Instrumentation Landing System—a ground-based system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching the runway to enable its safe landing during reduced visibility—in November 2009. Since then, the vital equipment has not been commissioned, much to the annoyance of the pilots, who often complain of ‘difficulty’ in landing during extreme weather conditions.
13/11/10 Faheem Aslam/Greater Kashmir

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Categories: Airports Nov 2010