With the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Air Force authorities playing the blame game over the replacement or repair of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Chandigarh Airport,it is the common man who is at the receiving end. While the Chandigarh Airport Authority is blaming the local Air Force authorities for the delay,the latter has put the onus of the job on the AAI. None of the authorities is ready to take responsibility for the flights disruption and harassment faced by the passengers. Airport Director Suneel Dutt said,The delay is entirely from the Air Force authorities side. They have to decide about the installation of the new ILS which is on their land. The authority to which the instrument belongs is responsible for its repair and replacement and not the AAI. The ILS system which was working so far was installed by the Air Force on their land. It was a CAT-I system installed 15 years back which was later allowed to the assist in civil operations. The land belongs to the Defence Ministry and they are the deciding authority. As the Defence Ministry has already communicated to the AAI that the installation process of new ILS would be done in a phased manner,which would take time,they can go ahead with installation of their own system. To this,the AAI has already agreed. The delay is now on their part, said Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Air Commodore S R K Nair of the 12 Wing Air Force station. With the non-functioning of CAT-I ILS,the Air Force operations are done with the help of VOR (VHF Omni-directional Radio Range),an old landing system. It is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. As the ILS installed by the Air Force at various other stations including Chandigarh are not meeting the defined parameters,the Air Force has already planned to replace its ILS throughout the country in a phased manner. The process would depend upon the priority and issues related to the requirement which could even stretch to a couple of years. Putting the proposal of installing a new ILS on the back burner,the AAI has approached the local Air Force authorities with another request-of calibration of the existing defunct ILS. The process of calibration would certify the ILS for civil operations. It is again a dispute among both the authorities as calibration would be done by the AAI on the Air Force equipment. The AAI is the only certified body to calibrate the ILS. It would be done by a specialised aircraft which also belongs to the AAI. But again it cannot be done entirely on its own and as permission would be given by the Air Force authorities as the equipment along with the premises where it is installed belongs to them, added Dutt. At a glance * The existing ILS was installed by the Indian Air Force 15 years ago at their premises * Civil aviation was allowed to use it,but the instrument remains within the IAF premises * Air Force authorities have asked to the AAI to replace the ILS * AAI is waiting for the Indian Air Force authorities to replace it * AAI changed its plans from replacement to calibration * This emerged as another dispute as only AAI certified body for calibration but the instrument belongs to IAF
