AAI8217;s modernisation plan runs into rough weather

According to sources involved with the MATS project at Mumbai, the navigational aid at Sinnar is situated in a spot surrounded by hills and has failed to show any results during the preliminary trials. As a result, the AAI may have to do without one of the key features of MATS, even after the new air traffic control tower is eventually made operational at Mumbai.

8220;While the planning of the project began way back in 1982 and the project implementation was finally handed over to Raytheon in the early1990s, nobody in the AAI top brass realised the hills around Sinnar would prevent any satellite signals from reaching the navigational equipment,8221; sources told Express Newsline.

In fact, even Raytheon engineers, who were an integral part of the planning process, believed it would be a strategically ideal place to set up the navigational equipment, sources added.

The problem was noticed recently when the trials on the equipment began recently. While the other three navigational aids worked as expected, the one at Sinnar completely failed to respond to any satellite signal or even digital signals from aircraft hovering right above it.

Now, in a drastic attempt to rectify the goof-up, the management is thinking of transferring the entire equipment to another place, though none has been selected so far. 8220;After realising that they have put the horse in front of the carriage, the AAI management is now planning to set things straight. Never mind that uprooting the delicate state-of-the-art equipmentand placing it at another place would cost several lakh of rupees,8221; sources pointed out.

However, sources in the management insisted that the MATS would be implemented in Mumbai by the end of 1999, even if the new system has to do without the services of the navigational aid at Sinnar. 8220;It would only lead to lesser number of traffic being diverted there, and the problem will be rectified in due time,8221; sources said.

The navigational aids are expected to ease traffic congestion over the country8217;s busiest airport, as aircraft circling over the city airport during peak traffic hours for a landing slot could be scattered to these places till they could be called in to land.

However, with the failure of the equipment at Sinnar, the efficiency of MATS would be considerably reduced, they lamented.

While the MATS equipment at Delhi airport was handed over to the AAI and the new control tower began operations since January 15, the one at Mumbai will not be able to function for at least one more year due toan acute shortage of trained manpower of both the technical officers and air traffic controllers.

To make matters worse, Raytheon Systems has objected to the in-house training of technical staff undertaken by the AAI.

About a fortnight ago, AAI authorised the personnel trained by Raytheon to impart training to their colleagues at Mumbai, but the exercise had to be discontinued after just a few days as Raytheon objected to this in-house training programme. 8220;The company wrote a letter to the AAI management saying that Raytheon-sponsored training of personnel on the MATS project should stop immediately as the equipment has not been officially handed over the AAI,8221; sources said.

While about 20 technical officers from Mumbai were trained at the United Kingdom and USA by Raytheon and made proficient to deal with the entire post-installation maintenance and operations of the communication and radar systems, the actual requirement of trained manpower to begin operations is over 80. The existing staff is notenough to handle the equipment as each system has some fifty parts which need to be calibrated individually, inform sources.

8220;We have asked the management to depute officers from other airports to Mumbai so that the staff based here can be released in a phased manner for the training programme. But till that is done, all the officers trained abroad for the MATS project will have to work only on the old systems,8221; sources said.