S. Anil Radhakrishnan
Thiruvananthapuram: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has procured two Airfield Fire Fighting and Rescue Vehicles from Austria as part of modernising its fire station functioning on the premises of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.
The two modern vehicles that were shipped from Rosenbauer in Austria, was brought to the AAI’s fire station on a trailer by road from Mumbai.
Costing over Rs.1.5 crore each, the vehicles are equipped to tackle all types of aircraft crashes efficiently. The vehicles will be formally inducted on Monday. The personnel who arrived from the manufacturing unit in Austria are providing training to the AAI fire and rescue service personnel in batches here to handle the newly procured vehicles.
The vehicles are among the 15 being imported from Austria by the AAI to handle any exigencies in the airport. The vehicles are fully equipped to take care of the safety of the aircraft and passengers, Airport Director K. Natarajan told The Hindu.
The premier airport of the State will be getting two more vehicles being imported from Austria before the close of the current financial year. The vehicles are being shipped in batches from Austria.
Four modern fire fighting vehicles will be sufficient to take care of the needs of Thiruvananthapuram airport. The idea is to phase out the existing fire tenders in the AAI fire station, Mr. Natarajan said. The induction of the vehicles coincides with the observation of the Aviation Week from Monday. The strength of the personnel of the fire station was increased from 120 to 135 last year.
