May 11 opening of BIA doubtful

May 11 opening of BIA doubtful
Bangalore, DHNS:


Even as a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) team began its three-day inspection of the Bengaluru International Airport here on Thursday, the May 11 commercial launch of the operations has come under a cloud.

Aviation sources revealed the various Air Traffic Control equipment were still far from operation stage.

BIA requires the green signal from this team for its commercial launch. The DGCA team is scheduled to 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.

The Assembly elections was cited as one of the reasons for a possible postponement of the commercial launch date of the new airport. During its earlier visit to the BIA in March, the DGCA was not satisfied with the ATC and a few other facilities. However, it had given its approval in most of the 59 parameters.

It may be recalled the airport's earlier launch date of March 30 was postponed due to incomplete ATC facility and lack of training for the Airports Authority of India (AAI) personnel manning the facility.