B'lore airport ATC to be upgraded, more space for aircraft

B'lore airport ATC to be upgraded, more space for aircraft
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The city's HAL airport, the third busiest in India, is in expansion mode.

Struggling to cope with the massive increase in the passenger traffic, it is all set to get a much-needed facelift.

Working in partnership, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and HAL, which owns the airport, have top geared efforts to ensure hassle-free flying for air travellers.

But there's a hefty price tag to the plans: AAI has chipped in with a whopping Rs 10 crore on expansion and renovation of the terminal building.

More check-in counters -- up to 20 -- will be installed and the existing ones spruced up.

The security hold area, at present woefully inadequate to accommodate the heavy inflow of passengers, will also be expanded.

“Expansion and renovation work is on in full swing and will be completed by the month end,” Bangalore Airport Director Krishnamurthy told this website’s newspaper.

Additionally, the AAI is also taking steps to improve the baggage handling system and is planning a multi-level car park outside the terminal building.

HAL, on its part, is contributing Rs 40 crore on modernising Air Traffic Control (ATC), creating two more hangers and night parking facilities for the aircraft.

“The existing ATC system is outdated and the new state-of-the- art radar will considerably improve its efficiency,' said a senior HAL officer.

With the revamp of the ATC system, it's operations will be divided into three zones: ‘Area Zone’ which will guide the aircraft, flying around 80-90 kms away; ‘Approach Zone’ which will take control when a flight approaches the airport and after landing ‘Surface Zone’ officials will communicate with it. “This has been done in order to ensure proper coordination,” the officer said.

But the airport has reached saturation point, making it tough to manage nearly 250 to 300 take-offs and landings which include, civil aircraft, IAF and HAL aircraft, he pointed out.

“We have only one runway and at times there will be a landing or a take-off every two minutes,” he said.

While Mumbai tops the list of busiest airports in the country with 550-600 take-offs and landings, New Delhi is second with 450-500.

However, the problem with the airport is that it was designed to handle around 3.5 million passengers a year.

Today, however, passenger traffic has mounted to nearly 6 million. “This year we expect to see over 6 million passengers,” the officer said.

Once the new greenfield airport at Devanhalli is ready, all civil aircraft will operate from there while the HAL airport will be used by the PSU and the IAF for their activities. The airport is likely to be operational by April 2008.

* B'lore airport third busiest in the country in terms of landings and take-offs.

* AAI to spend Rs 10 crore on passenger amenities.

* HAL to spend over Rs 40 improving ATC, other systems.