Bhubaneswar: In a bid to improve the navigational facility, the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here got the state-of-the- art Doppler VOR (DVOR) and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), as part of upgradation project, Friday.
DVOR is a standard ground-based radio navigational aid that provides bearing information to aircraft to define air traffic control routes for en-route, terminal and instrument approach/departure procedures. Similarly, DME is defined as a navigation beacon, usually coupled with DVOR beacon to enable aircraft to measure their position relative to that beacon.
As part of upgradation project of navigational aids at the BPIA, the new instruments worth Rs 4 crore were inaugurated by Amit Banerjee, Executive Director of CNS (Communications, Navigation and Surveillance) and SP Yadav, Regional Executive Director, Eastern Region.
“DVOR along with DME were installed at the airport to enhance efficient management of the air traffic. After commissioning of these equipment the visibility minima for the runaways will be reduced up to 750 metres,” a technical expert at BPIA explained.
As per reports, while BPIA saw an increase of 30 per cent in air traffic for international flights, a rise of 33 per cent was recorded in domestic flights in the last four years. The report also projected an overall flight movement of 32,369 expecting a growth of 39.7 per cent in air traffic to only in 2018.