Kolkata: A veteran pilot has floated a proposal that can better the lives of thousands residing near Kolkata airport.
Captain Sumanta Roy Choudhury, who retired after flying commercial planes for 31 years, has suggested a change in the take-off procedure of flights departing Kolkata so that places right under the take-off path are spared the noise from powerful jet engines that drown everything else.
Residents of Salt Lake, Lake Town, Bangur, Dum Dum Park and Madhyamgram say the situation has turned worse with the loud whir of engines causing window panes to vibrate and conversation at home difficult every time a plane passes overhead.
“The situation wasn’t this terrible 10 years ago when there would be 3-4 flights passing overhead in an hour. Now, it’s increased more than 10-fold. We can’t even sleep properly till very late in the night when there are fewer departures,” says Lake Town octogenarian Debajit Kundu.
Noise disturbance can have interfere with communication, cause sleep disturbance, lead to annoyance and result in cardiovascular and psycho-physiological problems.
The issue, says Roy Choudhury, is the low height at which planes taking off from Kolkata pass over these populated areas. “If departing planes make a quick and steep climb to 3,000ft, three-times the altitude they climb to now before reducing thrust, it will reduce noise considerably and disturb far fewer people for a much shorter duration than they so now,” the veteran pilot said.
Planes flying at 2,000ft make 1/4th the noise of planes at 1,000ft. At 3,000ft, the noise will be 1/8th.
At present, when planes take off from Kolkata airport over Rajarhat, they are allowed to turn left or right after climbing 1,000ft. While the area to the left is sparsely populated, it passes directly over Salt Lake, Lake Town and Dum Dum after turning right. At 1,000ft, the noise blast from the jet engines is quite high. For nearly 10 months of the year, planes take off from this end of the runway.
13/10/19 Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Captain Sumanta Roy Choudhury, who retired after flying commercial planes for 31 years, has suggested a change in the take-off procedure of flights departing Kolkata so that places right under the take-off path are spared the noise from powerful jet engines that drown everything else.
Residents of Salt Lake, Lake Town, Bangur, Dum Dum Park and Madhyamgram say the situation has turned worse with the loud whir of engines causing window panes to vibrate and conversation at home difficult every time a plane passes overhead.
“The situation wasn’t this terrible 10 years ago when there would be 3-4 flights passing overhead in an hour. Now, it’s increased more than 10-fold. We can’t even sleep properly till very late in the night when there are fewer departures,” says Lake Town octogenarian Debajit Kundu.
Noise disturbance can have interfere with communication, cause sleep disturbance, lead to annoyance and result in cardiovascular and psycho-physiological problems.
The issue, says Roy Choudhury, is the low height at which planes taking off from Kolkata pass over these populated areas. “If departing planes make a quick and steep climb to 3,000ft, three-times the altitude they climb to now before reducing thrust, it will reduce noise considerably and disturb far fewer people for a much shorter duration than they so now,” the veteran pilot said.
Planes flying at 2,000ft make 1/4th the noise of planes at 1,000ft. At 3,000ft, the noise will be 1/8th.
At present, when planes take off from Kolkata airport over Rajarhat, they are allowed to turn left or right after climbing 1,000ft. While the area to the left is sparsely populated, it passes directly over Salt Lake, Lake Town and Dum Dum after turning right. At 1,000ft, the noise blast from the jet engines is quite high. For nearly 10 months of the year, planes take off from this end of the runway.
13/10/19 Times of India
0 comments:
Post a Comment