NEW DELHI: Major airports across the country will soon be equipped with indigenous hi-tech instrument ‘Drishti’ that will help in the safe landing and takeoff of aircraft in poor visibility.
The production of this high-end instrument will result in substantial savings in foreign exchange as the product, until now, was purchased from other countries at expensive rates.
The National Aerospace Laboratories and India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday signed a partnership agreement for the joint production of the system for the assessment of runway visual range, which is a critical parameter for safe landing and take-off of aircraft when faced with unsatisfactory visibility.
It is a first-of-its-kind innovative, indigenous product designed and developed by the NAL to cover the wide span of lowest to highest visibility (<25 to >2000 metres), aiding pilots in landing and taking-off safely.
This cost-effective product is a mandatory system required at all airports as per International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
“This is a fine example of a collaboration between two government sector entities leading to the indigenisation of a technology, which, so far, was the exclusive domain of a few developed countries,” said officials.
The indigenous production of this high-end instrument will not only result in substantial savings, but will also make the country self-reliant in the field of front-end technology.
The agreement encompasses a wide range of research and development activities for further development of various meteorological sensors. The agreement paves way for operational deployment of Drishti system at different airports, where the IMD provides aeronautical and meteorological services. A mega project for installing nearly 70 such systems at various airports of the country is being jointly undertaken by the two organisations.
The system is extremely robust with high mean time between failures. Seven Drishti systems are working in three international airports -- Choudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.
“Web-enabled health monitoring, remote control of the system from any location in the country for accessing data and for maintenance are the other important features of this state of the art system. Servicing is made user-friendly and cost-effective by modular electronics and virtual instrumentation concepts in the design,” the official said.