AAI installs new surveillance system

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Oct. 30

THE Airports Authority of India (AAI) has put into operation the new ECIL, Hyderabad, developed Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS) system at the ATC system at Kolkata and Chennai airports.

ADS, the satellite-based navigation and surveillance system, is the latest in the air surveillance and navigational technology. The system enables the controller to monitor flight movement of an aircraft over oceanic airspace well beyond the reach of any radar.

An interim system was first installed at Kolkata in 1997 and with the installation of this technology, India was the second country after New Zealand to install the technology to enhance its air safety measures.

The ADS system helps the ATC on the ground to monitor the flight movement of an aircraft through the flight management system installed in the aircraft. The pilot while passing through an airspace logs on the ADS centre with the help of the Flight Management System on board the aircraft.

Once logged, the ADS automatically provides the controller on ground the entire information as well as the flight movement. At any given time, an aircraft is authorised to log on with one control station. The air-ground communication between the pilot and controller is done through the data link instead of by voice.

In a statement, AAI has said that it procured the ADS from CAE, Canada, during 1996-97. However, since the CAE system required the ground staff at the control centre to manually key the aircraft flight plan, AAI approached ECIL, Hyderabad, to develop an upgraded technology.