BHUBANESWAR: Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) will soon get advanced-surface movement guidance and control system (ASMGCS) to enhance safety on its runway and connecting roads in all-weather conditions. Sources said the system was procured and installed by Netherlands-based company Saab.
ASMGCS has been integrated with air traffic management (ATM) automation system, which has been indigenously developed by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The trial run and testing of ASMGCS has started and will be operational soon.
The system will provide routing, guidance and surveillance for movement of all vehicles operating in the airport. “ASMGCS is very important for movement of vehicles inside the airport in all-weather conditions, especially during low visibility caused due to dense fog,” said an official of BPIA.
BPIA at present has around 200 vehicles including buses for carrying passengers inside the airport, tractors for transporting luggage/goods and towing aircraft stairs, aircraft push back tractors, fire fighting vehicles, ambulances and jeeps of various departments like operations, civil, electrical and communications.
As part of ASMGCS, all the vehicles will be fitted with an equipment which will transmit their positions inside the airport to air traffic services (ATS) complex. Air traffic controllers will be able to monitor the movement of vehicles through realtime positioning which will be displayed on the system inside ATS complex.
The position of the vehicles will help the ATS complex officials manage traffic inside the airport and avert collision between them during low visibility. BPIA already has an automatic dependent surveillance broadcast technology to ascertain an aircraft’s position. Meanwhile, sources said BPIA also has an equipment inside its newly inaugurated 11-storey ATS complex to decide the routes of flights but does not have manpower to operate it.
“An area control centre has been established at ATS complex in BPIA. Once operational, it will control the aircraft flying above 25,000 feet and decide routes spread across Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Jabalpur and others,” said an official of BPIA.At present, these routes are decided by the ATS complex at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, said sources.