Panel makes a case for decongesting air space

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 : The congestion in the skies has caught the attention of the high-level committee instituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation last year. While submitting the “master plan for next generation futuristic air navigation services”, the committee headed by former Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad has recommended that Air Traffic Control (ATC) procedures be reviewed to ensure less congestion at major airports.

The committee has recommended that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) should immediately implement international standards of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). According to these, air traffic flow management should be implemented for airspace where air traffic demand exceeds capacity — bringing focus on congested Delhi and Mumbai airports.

The panel has also asked that the 10 new radars being procured should be commissioned in the network, permitting them to operate from the “area control centres” of Delhi and Mumbai, and AAI should also install “ground-based augmentation system” (GBAS) at the two airports.

AAI should consolidate airspace from the existing four Flight Information Region (FIRs) to two FIRs with two Area Control Centres, one in Delhi and the other in Mumbai. The airspace should be an integrated one with automated Air Traffic Management system and have networked radars and very high frequencies (VHFs), says the report.

On ATC delays, the report recommends that any delay above five minutes should be categoried as “significant”.

It has advocated flexible and optimised use of airspace for meeting the needs of both military and civil aviation. It has suggested that a high-level committee should be constituted for common use of Indian airspace.

The airspace above 29,000 feet could be released for civil traffic in the presently-defined restricted/danger airspace.

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