Today, the Indian Aviation
in enjoying a boom of sorts. The number of aircraft flying in and out of
Indian airports has dramatically shot up, from the 71, 699 flights in 2004
to 72, 524 flights now. But this increase in flights is also making us
think seriously about one aspect of Indian Aviation. Is the Air Traffic
Management System and infrastructure in the country geared to handle the
rapidly increasing traffic and able to cater to future needs?
The interim draft of the
K. Roy Paul committee lists a litany of problems in both the Air Traffic
Management System and various airports as well as the infrastructure
supporting it. The report talks about the deteriorating state of Air
Traffic Control automation systems and ‘highly alarming’ shortage of ATCOs.
Finally, the committee also points out at under-utilization of equipment
and infrastructure already present.
Indian Aviation is fast
opening up. A number of new airlines have been given permission to start
their operations with the result of a big jump in the number of flights
handled by the metro Airports. Then, a number of bilateral reciprocal
agreements signed between two countries allowing each other’s planes to
fly within each other’s territory, have been signed. This again resulted
in the increase of number of foreign airlines coming in and going out of
India. There has also been a rise in the overlying aircraft, aircraft that
do not land or take off in our airports but use our airspace to fly
through.
Air traffic has grown by
26 percent in the past two years compared to the 10-12 percent growth in
the developed countries. But, in comparison to the growth of traffic are
we really geared up to handle this growth in terms of infrastructure and
man-power planning? Through various committees of government have been
formed to study the problems of Indian Airports and Air Traffic Control
systems and address their problems by suggesting solutions, the situations
has not improved very much.
There is definitely a
manpower shortage in Air Traffic Control. There were 900 ATCOs handling
71, 699 flights in 2004 and though the flights have increased twenty
fold, the number of ATCOs haven’t. In the last four-five years there were
no recruitment of ATCOs leading to severe shortage of man-power. It is
only now that about 172 ATCOs have been recruited against a need felt for
another one thousand, who are undergoing training and are yet to take over
their duty rounds in different airports.
Among metro-cities, in
Delhi, only two sectors of the area control centers and one sector of
approach controls is functioning against four ACCs and three APPs planned.
Compared to other countries where a radar controller is expected to keep
an eye on two to three routes, a radar controller here keeps a
surveillance watch on 17-18 routes all at the same time. Many units of air
Traffic Control in various major airports cannot be made functional due to
shortage of trained manpower, despite recommendations have been received
to establish them in the interest of safe air traffic management.
BARE FACTS
From the figure of
incidents, which are events that are serious and could have led to
accidents, one can easily see the increasing trend. This is alarming.
It is high time we address
this crucial sector of Indian Aviation if we want safe progress of Indian
Aviation. What are we required to do as an immediate measure?
-
Decrease
the workload of Air Traffic controllers in the busiest of Indian Airports
like Mumbai and Delhi by inducting more trained man power to begin with.
Also make functional all the ATC units not yet functional and working
combined with other units of ATC as recommended by various safety audits
in all others airports by inducting more man power.
-
Improve
the working standards of navigational aids, instrument landing systems,
radar, VHF, HF etc. because all these aid to safe air traffic management.
-
The upper
wind data and all other date from the Metrological Department is required
to be interfaced with the Air Traffic Systems for better Air Traffic
Management.
-
Imparting
more training and awareness to our Air Traffic Controllers to make them
ready to give their best in the heavy load and high stress environment.
The solutions have been
suggested by various recommendations of various government committees. The
question of the hour is how fast we can act on them in the interest of
safe Air Traffic Management of Indian Skies.