Bhubaneswar: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to install Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Airport at Jharsuguda in a bid to ensure more regular services at the airport. The setup will cost Rs 5.5 crore and will be operational in next six months.
An ILS is a precision-runway approach aid based on two radio beams that enables pilots to conduct an instrument method to land if they are unable to establish visual contact with the runway. These antennas provide the pilot with vertical and horizontal guidance when landing in low visibility condition.
The Jharsuguda airport was facing repeated cancellations and delays of flights due to bad weather and lack of proper devices. Since the airport operates under the Visual Flight Rules (VFR), low visibility and inclement weather conditions necessitated installation of new navigational facilities to help the airport become an all-weather facility.
“The ILS, which is currently being installed, will be ready to facilitate take-off and landing operations of flights by December 2019. Similarly, Doppler Very High-Frequency Omni Range (DVOR) will be in use by October this year,” Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
DVOR is a standard radio navigational aid that provides information to aircraft to define air traffic control routes for en-route, terminal and arrival/departure procedures. DVOR when collocated with Distance Measuring Equipment provides both the angle and slant distance of aircraft with respect to ground station.
“The DVOR along with Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) was installed at the airport in February this year. Visibility minima will be reduced upto 3-3.5 km after commissioning of the equipment. The present visibility minima is 5 km at the airport,” a technical expert at BPIA explained.
The VSS is the second airport in Odisha after the Biju Patnaik International Airport in the state capital. The AAI developed VSS in collaboration with the state government at an estimated cost of Rs 210 crore with a contribution of Rs 75 crore from the state government. The airport infrastructure has been developed for all weather operations, including night operations for A-320 type of aircraft.