Certification GAGAN project by early next year

Giving a push to PM Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' efforts, the GAGAN project, which will make India only the fourth country in the world to have this system, is expected to get certified early next year. It will also give a major boost to the Indian aviation navigation system. The certification process was earlier expected to get completed by the end of last year.

GAGAN, which stands for GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation, is being done as a joint collaboration between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and ISRO. Although a lot of technology and instruments used for GAGAN have been procured from abroad, but at the same time a lot of indigenous improvisation has been made in it.

According to AAI officials, GAGAN is designed to provide additional accuracy, availability and integrity necessary to enable users to rely on GPS for all phases of flight.

The increased accuracy will help in position reporting, allowing for more uniform and high-quality air traffic management. In addition, GAGAN will provide benefits beyond aviation to all modes of transport, including maritime, highways, and railroads. GAGAN offers free enhanced satellite navigation signals over India, which are 10 times more precise than GPS.

"We expect the certification process by DGCA to happen by March-April next year," said CR Sudhir, executive director, CNS (operation management), during a seminar organised by the Airport Authority Officers' Association (India) on Tuesday in Bangalore.

The programme, titled DISHA-2014, involved discussions on issue of indigenisation of CNS (communication, navigation and surveillance) infrastructure to meet global challenges.