Saturday, September 05, 2015

Copters to take new paths over city

Mumbai: Helicopters landing and taking off in Mumbai will soon use a new flight paths. The need for the new routes, set at a higher altitude, is the fallout of tall buildings that have come up in the city in recent times. Officials said these high-rises are a big obstacle to the movement of choppers and cause communication blackouts, raising serious safety concerns.

The Mumbai Air Traffic Controller, which has approved the new paths following a detailed feasibility study and safety assessment, has now called operators for sessions on pre-empting obstacles along the 14 existing routes that helicopters fly along, next week.

Mumbai is the only Indian city to record close to 100 helicopter movements a day, with each flying in a height band of 500ft to 700 ft. In a meeting of the helicopters operators and government authorities on March 21, corporate houses like Reliance, Bharat Forge and Bajaj had raised the risks of using the current path and the need for a raising the flying height.
06/09/15 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
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