Mumbai gets a new control tower, almost

December 10: Although engineers from the USA and Europe are expected to declare Mumbai airport's new control tower fit for operations by ne...

December 10: Although engineers from the USA and Europe are expected to declare Mumbai airport8217;s new control tower fit for operations by next week-end, red-tape and lack of trained hands ensure that the multi-crore project will continue to be in limbo for the next few months.

Except for minor civil works, the Airports8217; Authority of India is in a position to begin parallel use of the new control tower with the existing one, with the final end that all air traffic service functions will be completely transferred to the new site. AAI engineers are also studying the progress of the modernisation programme at Delhi airport, being carried out presently. 8220;The new control tower and its predecessor at Delhi airport should be functioning parallel to another one by now. Mumbai8217;s control tower will follow Delhi,8221; said an airport official.

However, AAI faces a severe shortage of ATCs and technicians for training to work on the new control tower equipment. Of the 120 ATCs needed for the Mumbai airport, only 90 have been sanctioned. Consequently, training of ATCs on the new equipment has been suspended since August. AAI officials are still unable to say when the training will resume. Incidentally, nearly ten controllers trained on the new system were transferred to other cities over the past few months.

Training of technical officers in charge of maintaining equipment has also been affected by staff shortage. Both ATCs and technical officers had refused to undergo even short-term training last month due to their work-to-rule agitation. The 100 million dollars Modernisation of Air Traffic Services 8211; Bombay Delhi, MATS B-D, which began five years ago is already well behind schedule. 8220;There is no will to speed up work,8221; lamented a senior official involved with the project. Already, the Secondary Surveillance and L-band radars and related equipment have been installed and found to be working in perfect condition. Fifteen Raytheon engineers from US, Romania and New Zealand are giving finishing touches to the equipment. Though the civil aviation ministry has fixed the end of January 1998 as a tentative date for commissioning the project, sources say it is unlikely to be so as all ATCs are yet to be trained.

Even as completion work continues at a snail8217;s pace, maintenance of the installed equipment is hampered by red tape. For instance, there is a three-month delay in getting damaged parts repaired from abroad.