A Central Command Control System for Air Traffic Control will be introduced by December 2011, said V.P. Agrawal, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI), here on Friday.
Mr. Agrawal, who was here to review the ongoing expansion project at the airport said, “It is a great coordination work and will monitor the entire airspace designated to us.”
A meeting was held with Chennai Metro Rail authorities on Thursday and the issue relating to its alignment of corridor and a station near the airport was sorted out. The level of the Metro corridor was safe as the AAI had taken into consideration the safety aspect.
Software and hardware for automation of Air Traffic Control systems at the Chennai airport will arrive in a fortnight. This is the latest version, which has better functionalities. More features are available in this than the existing Auto back-III system. It will be introduced by December and a set of AAI employees trained before installing the new facility, said Mr. Agrawal.
Talking about the bridge across the Adyar for expansion of the secondary runway, he said as there was not much of water in the river, work was progressing fast. The State government had allocated 6.1 acres near the secondary runway, where the AAI would install the simple approach lighting system.
Answering a question on the Defence land issue, Mr. Agrawal said it had not been resolved yet. However, the project work was progressing as per schedule. Similarly, work on the 21 parking bays had been completed and another 14 would be ready before completion of the project. Once that was completed the airport would have totally 88 parking bays.
The construction of terminal buildings, one each in domestic and international sectors, would be completed by March next year.
With the arrival of privately operated airports in the country the issue of licensing system was also raised. The AAI had also agreed to this. However, the AAI had asked the government to waive the licence fee for the organisation. Negotiations were on and soon it would be sorted out.
Mr. Agrawal inaugurated an extended security hold area at the Kamaraj domestic terminal.
