Kochi: There are no main radars at two of its three international airports and the lone one at Thiruvananthapuram airport is well past its expiry date.
The situation is alarming as close to 300 aircraft, including international carriers overflying Kerala, use this air space daily.
Cochin International Airport, Nedumbassery, suffers the most as air traffic controllers rely on their primary school mathematics to calculate the expected time of arrival (ETA) of an incoming aircraft.
And in Thiruvananthapuram, the existing radar caused some anxious moments when it conked out as Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s aircraft was approaching to land recently. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the main radar should have been installed in Kochi airport the day traffic crossed the 30 aircraft/day (including those landing, taking off and overflying) mark.
“But today we handle 129 aircraft any given day,” sources pointed out.
“This is four times more than the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) regulation.” Though Kochi was in the list of 10 airports identified by Airports Authority of India where new radars were to be installed, the exercise has come to a stand-still following an objection filed by the company that had quoted the second lowest rate in the bidding.
20/03/11 Manoj K. Das/Deccan Chronicle
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