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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Sept 11

In a move, which will allow seamless navigation and better use of Indian air space, the Government on Thursday approved a joint proposal of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to implement Global Position System aided Geo Augmented Navigational system or GAGAN programme.

The complete implementation of the programme will allow India to have satellite-based navigation system instead of the ground-based navigation system being adopted at present. “The operationalisation of the system will allow seamless navigation over Indian air space apart from a enabling aircraft to navigate a straight route instead of navigating a zig-zag path over land based stations at present. Besides, the system will provide coverage of oceanic areas which is not possible with a terrestrial system,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The programme will be realised in two phases – the GAGAN technology demonstration system, which was completed in August last year and the final operation phase to be implemented for operations use and to be certified by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. This phase is expected to be completed by May 2011.

India will become only the fourth country globally to implement such a programme.

The cost of the project is estimated at Rs 774 crore of which Rs 148 crore was spent during the TDS phase while the remaining amount will be spent to implement the final operation phase, officials said.

AAI is expected to contribute Rs 596 crore, which will be mainly garnered from internal resources, while ISRO will contribute Rs 178 crore from its budget.

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