Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday directed the Chief of Defence Staff, department of civil aviation, department of military affairs, ministry of defence, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other stakeholders to examine and decide on installation of CAT III-B instrument landing system (ILS) that allows flights to land in low visibility at the Chandigarh international airport while observing that national security is of utmost importance.
The directions came after the department of military affairs submitted that the installation of CAT III-B ILS will “entail demolition and relocation of most of functional infrastructure of a military airfield as well as national air defence assets that will be detrimental to the operational needs of the IAF, military flying and national air defence.” The matter would now come up for hearing on March 26.
A status report filed by additional secretary, department of military affairs, ministry of defence, said security and cost benefit analysis needs to be carried out before spending a significant amount of money on CAT-III B that will probably be needed for just 10 to 15 days in a year and that too for 2 to 3 hours. “For the rest of the days, the existing CAT I ILS will facilitate landing of civil aircraft in runway visual range of 550 metres. Whenever CAT II ILS is declared operational, it will allow aircraft to land in visibility of 350 metres,” the report said.
The report said the permission for southern taxiway was granted on February 28. It said the AAI had pointed out obstructions like barriers and boundary wall and air defence infrastructure. In September 2019, a new list of 139 obstructions were handed over to the IAF for removal. On February 17, AAI experts informed that only after removal/relocation of these obstructions could ILS CAT III B be operationalized.
04/03/20 Neha Sharma/Times of India
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The directions came after the department of military affairs submitted that the installation of CAT III-B ILS will “entail demolition and relocation of most of functional infrastructure of a military airfield as well as national air defence assets that will be detrimental to the operational needs of the IAF, military flying and national air defence.” The matter would now come up for hearing on March 26.
A status report filed by additional secretary, department of military affairs, ministry of defence, said security and cost benefit analysis needs to be carried out before spending a significant amount of money on CAT-III B that will probably be needed for just 10 to 15 days in a year and that too for 2 to 3 hours. “For the rest of the days, the existing CAT I ILS will facilitate landing of civil aircraft in runway visual range of 550 metres. Whenever CAT II ILS is declared operational, it will allow aircraft to land in visibility of 350 metres,” the report said.
The report said the permission for southern taxiway was granted on February 28. It said the AAI had pointed out obstructions like barriers and boundary wall and air defence infrastructure. In September 2019, a new list of 139 obstructions were handed over to the IAF for removal. On February 17, AAI experts informed that only after removal/relocation of these obstructions could ILS CAT III B be operationalized.
04/03/20 Neha Sharma/Times of India
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