BIA hopes for nod

BIA hopes for nod
Thursday April 24 2008 09:27 IST

Express News Service
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BANGALORE: THE Central team from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reached Bangalore on Wednesday for an inspection of the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at Devanahalli.

The team will start its approximately three-day inspection on Thursday. The report of this inspection will decide whether the DGCA issues a licence for commercial operations to BIA this time.

The licence is essential for the start of operations at the new airport. The DGCA will check the airport's preparedness on 59 parameters.

The team will check the preparedness of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Communication Navigation Surveillance-Air Traffic Management and other facilities related to Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Airport.

A flight to test landing procedure and performance, including instrument landing system, viewing landing system and navigation landing system will take off.

“After failing to obtain the licence last time, BIAL has worked on all the observations made by the DGCA. There might not be any major points for observation this time and it might be narrowed down to five primary points, that include runway and taxi-way shoulders, marking of runway surfaces, tarmac and parking arrangements,” an expert from the aviation industry told this website's newspaper.

If satisfied by the preparedness of the Airport, the DGCA will give a provisional approval for commercial operations at the Airport. The final clearance may come just a couple of days before the operations begin.

During its earlier visit to the BIA in March, the DGCA was not satisfied with the ATC and a few other facilities, while it had approved of the airport's preparedness in most of the 59 parameters, which the DGCA certifies an airport on.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) installed the ATC (CNS/ATM) equipment late and needed more time for its officials to get trained to handle the complex air traffic.

“BIAL can be very positive about getting the approval this time if the AAI has completed the ATC training for its officials,” said an aviation industry expert.

BIAL hopes to obtain the licence from the DGCA this time and has chosen to stay quiet till the approval.