Airport gets sys to keep eye on ground traffic

Mumbai: The number of near misses on ground at Mumbai airport may finally climb down. After years of wait and a series of missed deadlines, the airport is about to get a real-time tracking system that would follow all vehicles moving about on its grounds, reducing the risk of collisions.
Called Surface Movement Radar (SMR), the system is an integrated network of six to eight sensors set up around the airport and a monitoring screen at the air traffic controller tower. The sensors track all aircraft and vehicles moving on the ground and alert the traffic controller if anyone deviates from the designated path. Using the monitor, the ATC can identify the culprit and order the driver or the pilot to check his movement.
Most international airports—including those in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru—have an SMR, a requirement under International Civil Aviation Organization rules. But Mumbai airport has been doing without one for over five years even though air traffic and flight movements have increased threefold during the period.
Now, officials say, the city airport will get a skeletal version of the system by Christmas; the full system will likely be in place by March next year.
"It is one of the most significant developments at Mumbai airport as instances of near misses were becoming frequent due to continuous movement of aircraft and other vehicles. Also, since most of the monitoring of vehicles was manual, there were many remote parking bays and taxiways which fell beyond the air traffic controller's eyeshot ," said a senior airport official.
10/12/10 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Dec 2010