Jharsuguda: With Instrument Landing System (ILS) becoming operational at the Veer Surendra Sai Airport from midnight July 14, the problems aircraft faced while landing during inclement weather have ended.
ILS is an electronic guidance system designed to provide short range guidance to pilots for landing aircrafts during bad weather.
The Veer Surendra Sai Airport had been devoid of this facility. Because of this, fliers would face problems as the scheduled flights were either cancelled or delayed.
Local people had long demanded the ILS facility at the airport.
“Keeping this in mind, the airport authorities installed the facility at Rs 26 crore. The same was made functional from Wednesday midnight,” informed director, Veer Surendra Sai Airport, Kishore Senapati.
Pilots would no longer face the problems they faced during landing, he added.
Prior to installation of ILS facility, planes were landing under Doppler Very High-Frequency Omni Range (DVOR) and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) procedure.
Under DVOR procedure, small aircrafts and big planes required at least 1,500 metre and 2,100 metre visibility respectively.
As of now, planes will be able to make landing even if the visibility is 800 metre, it was learnt.
Notably, the airport has been developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in collaboration with the state government at an estimated cost of Rs 210 crore, with the state government chipping in with Rs 75 crore.
An MoU between the AAI and the state government was inked July 30, 2014. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gave the airport a 4C category licence in August 2018.
The VSS Airport is the second commercial airport in Odisha after Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the airport September 22, 2018. It is spread over 1,027.5 acres with a 2,390- metre long runway.
PNN