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Same state of ATC, but HIAL OKed and BIAL grounded
Written By thebangalorean - 27 March, 2008
Hyderabad’s new international airport does not have a fully functional Air Control Tower, also known as an ATC!CNBC-TV18’s Faye D'souza found out that part of the Air Traffic Control operations is still being done at the old Begumpet Airport. India's tallest ATC became operational on Sunday, March 23, when the old airport in Hyderabad closed down for commercial operations to make way for the new one in Shamshabad. But the transition has not been smooth. Here's the twist - pilots trying to land at the new airport are still being navigated by officials at the old airport! Officials say this is because the ATC's approach control radar at the new airport is not yet ready for operation. The ATC Towers at the two airports have different technology and are only 30 kms away from each other, which might explain why pilots descending to land at the new airport are having nervous moments minutes before touchdown because they may have received incorrect warnings from their flight computers about terrain. The GMR group that has constructed the Rs 2500 crore rupee airport says the ATC Tower is 100% complete and keeping the old ATC tower in function is part of standard procedures" Even if the ATC tower is completely ready airports authority officials have told us their officers are not trained to handle the new technology yet. But the big question is while readiness was reason enough for postponement of the launch of the Bengaluru international airport by over a month. It doesn't seem to be a problem here.
COMMENTS
Local knowledge is always helpful
Devesh - 29 May, 2008 - 04:35
No doubt about the strength of local knowledge, in any activity, but in the air, you really do not have that much in the form of ground obstacles.
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Regards
Devesh R. Agarwal
Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com
tsubba - 27 May, 2008 - 14:42
mcadambi - 27 May, 2008 - 09:51
http://avherald.com/h?article=4075156d&opt=0
Finally ...... someone acknowledges HAL ATC
Devesh - 27 May, 2008 - 12:28
Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Yuvraj.
For years I have been praising the HAL ATC for doing such a marvelous job. If you recall, in a debates we had on Praja over HAL, I pointed out, that it was a rare instance that a flight had to circle over Bangalore, waiting in sequence to land.
This is an all the more admirable achievement, since HAL does not yet have the secondary radar system in place, and despite umpteen pleas by Industry Chambers and HAL ATCs, DGCA, never bothered to put SIDs and STARs in to place at HAL.
They have done all this for BIAL, and given the 5 frequencies (i.e. 5 controllers handling the traffic, at one time), in comparison to 3 at HAL. With the same amount of traffic 340 flights per day as HAL, BIAL is already choking up. How they are going to reach 550 movements is anyone's guess.
Just showing Bangalore the facade of a fancy PTB does not work. Time to go beyond the "Hawa Mahal".
And not to overlook -- some newpaper reporters thought of some fancy math, and took BIAL's 30 flights per hour, simply multiplied it by 24 and came up with a daily total of 720 flights.
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Regards
Devesh R. Agarwal
Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com
tsubba - 29 May, 2008 - 02:12
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