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India plans 'intelligent' airport terminals

High-tech equipment would be deployed for the security and air traffic control systems covering a wide range of activities - from access control to perimeter security.

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NEW DELHI: As the roadmap for modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports nears completion, top Civil Aviation Ministry officials on Wednesday said new terminals coming up at major airports across the country would be "intelligent" and IT-enabled.

"We are awaiting a report from the Tamil Nadu government regarding land acquisition. We are likely to get the report in the next two to three weeks.

"As soon as we get the report, we will move the Union Cabinet on modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports", Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters after inaugurating the 'Inter Airport India' exhibition here.

He said the West Bengal government has already made it clear that the Kolkata airport would be modernised by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Earlier, addressing the inaugural session of the exhibition, AAI chief K Ramalingam said major Indian airports in future would have "intelligent terminals" fitted with sensors to operate various facilities -- from lighting and air-conditioning to an IT-enabled building management system.

High-tech equipment would be deployed for the security and air traffic control (ATC) systems covering a wide range of activities -- from access control to perimeter security.

The Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management (CNS-ATM) system would be modernised and linked to the satellite-based system called GAGAN, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation.

"We will have a VSAT network to cover eight major airports" to begin with, Ramalingam said, adding even the baggage X-Ray and screening mechanisms would be upgraded
considerably.

The Civil Aviation Secretary, in his address, said while Delhi and Mumbai airports were being modernised, the greenfield projects at Hyderabad and Bangalore would be ready by the middle of next year.

Observing that there was a "colossal requirement" of an estimated 10 billion dollars to modernise airports across the country, he said the focus necessarily would be to have
public-private partnership.

"As a policy response, the foreign investment regime in airport development and air services have been made liberal. We are open to further liberalisation based on the needs of the industry", Chawla said.

Elaborating on the "exponential growth" in the Indian aviation sector, he said the passenger traffic has grown and would continue to grow at a fast pace. The number of scheduled passenger airline operators has grown to 15 and the number of aircraft in their fleet has risen to over 300.

During 2006, these scheduled airline operators have been given permission to import as many as 66 aircraft and another 350 aircraft are waiting to be imported by the airline
operators over the coming four to five years, he said.

The Civil Aviation Secretary said such huge expansion in a short time had overburdened the limited available infrastructure.

The major challenges, which were currently being tackled by the government, included modernisation of airports and ATM, ensuring safety and security standards at par with global specifications, evolving a dynamic communication and navigation system and development of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facilities, Chawla added.

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