Bangalore airport not ready for safe operations: air traffic controllers

Bangalore airport not ready for safe operations: air traffic controllers

V. Sridhar

‘BIAL is in a hurry to somehow meet the deadline’

Some equipment may take another two weeks to arrive

Bangalore: Air traffic controllers, a specialised workforce without whom no airport can function, have voiced serious apprehensions on whether the Bangalore international airport can start operations on March 28.

A senior controller with 17 years of experience told The Hindu, “We can perhaps meet the target in 60 days, and if stretched hard, maybe in 45 days. But any deadline that is shorter would not only be imprudent, it would be irresponsible.” He said if BIAL was in a hurry to “somehow meet the March 28 deadline, it is only possible to provide a skeletal service. Full service is impossible by that date, unless those in authority are willing to take serious risks”. There were currently only 25 controllers at the airport, against a required strength of 80, he added. Although 25 were due to join soon, the number would still be inadequate to handle the scale of traffic that was expected at the new airport. A controller normally needed about eight months to be “rated”, by which time he/she became familiar with the traffic pattern in a new location, he said. The controllers had to familiarise themselves with the traffic pattern at the new airport. “About 480 traffic movements a day are expected at this airport, and therefore, the deployment cannot be hurried,” he said.

The aircraft navigational equipment at the Devanahalli airport, including radars, consoles, Instrument Landing System (ILS), Visual Omni Range (a navigation system that provides bearings by means of VHF radio), supplied by an Italian company, Selex Systemi Integrati Ltd., was likely to be installed only by March 20. The ATC tower was itself “handed over” only last month, the source said.

Selex was unlikely to complete the installation before March 20, he said. Air traffic controllers had expressed their anxiety about “being pushed to meet an unrealistic deadline” to senior AAI officials. Senior AAI officials had been told that “the rush to meet the deadline may result in incidents that may have serious consequences”.

It is believed that the AAI top management had also recognised their apprehensions. Even if Selex completed the installation by March 15, it would take at least till April 30 for the airport to commence operations, assuming a 45-day target, which was itself rather stiff, sources said. A senior manager dealing with the communications equipment at the new airport told The Hindu that some of the equipment “may take another two weeks to arrive”.