All radars at airports in the southern region will be integrated, said V.P. Agrawal, Chairman Airports Authority of India (AAI), here on Friday.
He was on a two-day visit here to inspect the progress of various works at the Chennai airport.
Mr. Agrawal said the integration of the air space was the first of its kind in the country and would enhance safety and reduce the workload of air traffic controllers (ATCs). Airports in the region would be able to see the movement of an aircraft from the coverage area of one to another radar.
Hitherto whenever an aircraft crosses from one to another radar area, the information used to be communicated by ATCs. The new system would reduce that too.
“The southern region is the most equipped region by all means in the country,” he said. Similar integration work would be implemented in other regions too.
A new Mono-pulse Secondary Surveillance Radar installed at Porur would become operational by February-end. The GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) was being tested successfully in Bangalore.
As for automation at the Chennai Air Traffic Control Tower, the hardware had been installed and software installation was in progress. The automation work would be completed by April when it would become operational.
The AAI had requested the State government to acquire land to take up expansion work at the Coimbatore airport.
The government had completed the acquiring process. Once it handed over the land, the expansion plan would be prepared.
The contract for a new terminal building at the Puducherry airport was awarded a couple of days ago. The work would be completed within 18 months from the date of commencement. The new terminal building would have the capacity to handle 150 passengers each for arrival and departure during peak hours.
At the Chennai airport both the secondary runway and the bridge across the Adyar were nearing completion. So the AAI had decided to make the existing portion of the secondary runway operational. For this officials from the Director General of Civil Aviation had to inspect and issue a certificate. Once that was received the existing secondary runway would become operational again.
Work on the new domestic terminal is progressing and 75 per cent of the work has been completed, said M.S. Bhaduri, Executive Director (Projects).
The new domestic terminal would be inaugurated by June this year.
On the international side still the Defence authorities had not vacated the building, though they had been officially informed that the AAI could go ahead with the work.
