If the Airports Authority of India sticks to its deadline,then Mumbai airport will have a surface movement radar (SMR) by the end of October. This deadline was set after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked the AAI to expedite the installation,following an accidental runway incursion on May 26 by an Indigo flight when a Jet flight was on about to land. A surface movement radar will give air traffic controllers an electronic view of every movement across the runway and the tarmac and is particularly useful during bad weather and at night when visual monitoring is difficult for air traffic controllers. The equipment was procured last September but the installation has been delayed for a variety of reasons. Last week,AAI chairperson V P Agarwal intervened and cleared the decks for speedy installation. The process of installation is complex. I had to intervene personally and we went over the nitty-gritties last week. We are targeting completion of the installation and testing of the instrument. By October end,it should be commissioned, Agarwal said. The airport surface movement guidance system consists of two radars and 14 multilateral sensors that will be installed all around the airport. The two radars will be mounted on two 30-metre towers,one opposite the domestic terminal and the other on the edge of the Mithi river. Some of the preliminary work is complete. The tower by the Mithi is already ready and the first radar is likely to come up here. The laying of cables over 10 km for the radar installation will also be complete soon. The SMR will enhance safety at the movement area of the airport. It will add to the confidence of air traffic controllers, said Mumbai ATC general manager M G Jhungare. It took the Delhi airport,the only other airport in India to have an SMR,around 2.5 years to complete the installation. Besides Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata are two other airports where SMR equipment is waiting for installation,AAI sources said.
