Rs.1.5cr wasted on airport gadgets

Chennai: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will incur unnecessary expenditure of around Rs.1.5 crore on two very high frequency omnirange (VOR) navigation devices at Chennai Airport when it could have done just as well with the present one.
Officials apparently ignored the existing VOR device while charting the airport expansion plans and constructed a near new taxi track nearby.
The VOR will pose a threat to aircraft taxiing on the new track to parking bays near the secondary runway.
A VOR device is used by pilots to navigate in a local area within a radius of up to 48 km and for a terminal to guide aircraft during approach ahead of landing.
A senior pilot said the need of a VOR device as a navigation tool could soon be a thing of the past as most aircraft now use GPS systems. “We no longer depend on ground navigation tools to land,” he added.
He noted that the existing VOR, which is now near the intersection of two runways, could have been moved a short distance instead of it being completely pulled down and replaced with two new devices.
“That would have allowed it to be equidistant from all the four departure points on the two runways,” he said.
Others say the VOR could have been shifted to the Meenambakkam end of the airport where four NEPC Airlines aircraft are parked.
30/03/11 S. Sujatha/Deccan Chronicle

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Categories: Airports Mar 2011