Time factor in tall plans for air safety

Calcutta: Safety comes second at Calcutta airport. The civil aviation ministry has sanctioned a plan to replace the archaic air traffic control equipment that frequently land flights in trouble, but work won’t start until the integrated terminal is ready, a senior official revealed on Tuesday.
That means a long wait of at least another year — the Rs 2,300-crore terminal project is set to overshoot its April deadline by six months — before the first brick is laid for a new air traffic control tower twice as tall as the existing one.
The air traffic control revamp was part of the original modernisation plan for the airport till a shortage of funds put safety on the chopping block. The airport has since added to its abysmal safety record, the latest scare coming last week when a serial system crash left around 300 flights without remote surveillance and guidance for nine hours.
An official of the Airports Authority of India said building a new tower would entail an estimated additional cost of Rs 250 crore, of which around Rs 100 crore is to be spent on state-of-the-art communication, surveillance and navigation equipment.
Metro had reported last September that the shelved revamp plan was set to make a comeback.
A source in Delhi said the civil aviation ministry wrote to the finance ministry recently, conveying its approval of the plan along with the required technical details.
26/01/11 The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Jan 2011, Safety Jan 2011