Disaster in the wings

Like the busy City roads that have always been carrying vehicles beyond its capacity, the City airport too has been over burdened with the overwhelming air traffic.

The city roads which can actually handle a mere 11 lakh vehicles at present is handling around 26 lakh vehicles, similarly the city airport which has a capacity to handle 3.6 million passengers per year, is currently operating 7.3 million passengers with 260 flights landing and taking off every day. With the airport operating way beyond its maximum flight capacity, the intervening time between the take-offs of flights is very less, thus causing a huge risk to the flights. The low-level turbulence caused by the vortex of the planes could affect the plane taking off or landing next.

This apart, the residential areas below the flight path are also in risk as the airport is also used by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Aircraft Systems and Training Establishment (ASTE) as a military test flying location. Two major crashes have already been witnessed during the testing activities in recent times resulting in subsequent closure of the runway for more than five to six hours.

Aviation experts from HAL, Airports Authority of India (AAI), ASTE and Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) admitted that there was a real danger but was too late to rectify.

" If there is one word to describe the HAL airport, it is Hell. With so many flight landings and take offs, there is a clear present danger especially with the mushrooming of residential pockets just outside the airport boundary wall," says Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) Ajit Lamba.

Senior AAI officials blamed the sudden boom in domestic aviation for the dense air traffic in the City. " The Airport is the third busiest in terms of domestic traffic and fourth in terms of total traffic. Besides, there has been a 50 per cent air traffic growth when compared to last year. However, the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli will ease the problem to a great extent," the official added.

HAL which originally set up the airport in 1964 as a test and research facility, has always been highly critical of the ever increasing commercial air traffic and has asked the ministry of civil aviation and airlines to discontinue the addition of flights to and from Bangalore. The International Airport in Devanahalli which will start flight operations by April 2008 has realised the increase in air traffic and remodelled the under construction airport so that it could take in additional passengers. The new airport is expected to handle 6.7 million passengers in its first year of operation, 8.5 million by 2010 and about 40 million passengers by 2040.

“If there is one word to describe the HAL airport, it is Hell. With so many flight landings and take offs, there is a clear present danger especially with the mushrooming of residential pockets just outside the airport boundary wall”