Advance surveillance system to monitor planes at city airport

NAGPUR: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport may be rapidly losing its 'international' status wing to lack of basic facilities for passengers and dropping number of flights but as far as communication, surveillance and navigation side are concerned, it is advancing.
After successfully installing a new Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation system 'Indra', now Airports Authority of India (AAI) is all set to install Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), a cost effective surveillance technology by July this year to further upgrade air traffic management sector, AAI special officer Shafiq Shah informed.
"We are constantly upgrading our technologies. ADS-B, which helps in tracking aircraft as part of next generation air transportation system, will be useful as a backup especially when any of the radar and ATC stations like Nagpur, Bhopal, Hyderabad or Jharsuguda in Orissa fails or is withdrawn for some reason," he said. This will facilitate coverage up to Jaipur in north to Bangalore in south and Vishakhapattanam in east to Aurangabad in the west, he added.
The ADS-B technology will send signals through satellite to flights mid air. These signals would be read by a receptor device fitted in the aircraft that will report back the aircraft position to system. Unlike radar, ADS-B accuracy does not degrade with range, atmospheric conditions, or target altitude. Update intervals too do not depend on the rotational speed or reliability of mechanical antennae, Shah said. This new system not only would add to the safety standards of Nagpur airport but would also have credibility to satisfy major international airlines, he added.
Nagpur airport was chosen for installation of ADS-B due to its central location and the fact that it guides the movements of over 650 overflying aircraft from Europe, Middle East and Africa to South East and East Asia as well as most of the domestic traffic from North to South and East to West.
Now AAI will resurface airport runway
After the bad experience of substandard work by a consultant and poor quality work done by private contractor while resurfacing new apron and taxiway which has already started giving way, the airport operator Mihan India Limited (MIL), has asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to take charge and carry out 3200-metre runway resurfacing work at city airport, MIL officials informed.
A senior MIL official requesting anonymity informed that MIL had written to AAI chairman V P Agrawal requesting him to look after all the related works right from consultancy to design, preparing estimates for the work, floating of tender and allotment of work order etc. Agrawal, during his recent visit to city airport, had also announced that AAI would share the cost of Rs 25 crore with MADC and would ensure the runway was resurfaced soon. The runway was last resurfaced in 2004 by AAI.