Kolkata: Come Tuesday, flights to and from Kolkata are set to get a whole lot safer. The air traffic management team at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is taking a quantum technological leap, upgrading from a system that could, at best, be termed "outdated" to one that can be considered "state-of-the art".
For years now, the air traffic controllers in Kolkata had been going about their job of maintaining safety during take-offs and landings with primary and secondary radars installed in 1997. According to an insider, the equipment has undergone several crucial tech transformations in the intervening years, "but Kolkata had to be content with outdated technology".
Significantly, ATCs in Delhi and Mumbai have undergone three modernizations since 1997.
For example, controllers now rely on data from unreliable radars and have to constantly communicate via VHF (very high frequency) radio and telephones with pilots and others air traffic controllers.
11/08/14 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
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For years now, the air traffic controllers in Kolkata had been going about their job of maintaining safety during take-offs and landings with primary and secondary radars installed in 1997. According to an insider, the equipment has undergone several crucial tech transformations in the intervening years, "but Kolkata had to be content with outdated technology".
Significantly, ATCs in Delhi and Mumbai have undergone three modernizations since 1997.
For example, controllers now rely on data from unreliable radars and have to constantly communicate via VHF (very high frequency) radio and telephones with pilots and others air traffic controllers.
11/08/14 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
