New upgrades, technologies emerge for air infra

Bangalore, Feb 11: As India prepares for a technological revolution in its airport infrastructure, exciting upgrades and innovations are flying fast.

And several global companies involved in airport development and operations have placed India high on their priority list.

Increased passenger and cargo traffic requires improvements to existing infrastructure, upgrading metro and non-metro airports, developing greenfield airports, introduction of modern technology to improve efficiency and upgrading its CNS/ATM (communication, navigation and surveillance/airspace and traffic management) facilities.

Mr Bob Johnson, chief executive of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), says opportunity exists for Indian airports to achieve high technological standards in infrastructure currently being rolled out around the world.

For instance, Fraport AG which owns and manages Frankfurt Main airport in Germany has many innovations in the pipeline including ETNA (electronic taxiway navigation array) that focuses on management processes. It helps prevent runway incursions and vehicle collisions through the use of optical and audio warning signals.

Fraport is also developing a precision approach monitor (PAM) which allows multiple runway capacity increase by reducing diagonal separation required by radar of 2.5 nautical miles between two aircraft by utilising a multilateration system.

Airport authorities are also developing systems and processes for noise reduction and pollution caused by passenger flow to and from the airport. Innovative designs of terminal buildings can promote simplified, easy passage flow and decrease walking distances. Ground vehicles are also an area for new technologies. Oil company BP is developing technologies for fueling vehicles with hydrogen and testing their everyday practicality.

At Munich Airport, robots fuel cars with liquid hydrogen and buses are fuelled manually with gaseous hydrogen.

Inside terminal buildings, information technology systems are a large focus for development and upgrades. Common-use self-service kiosks are increasingly replacing classic check-in desks in a world where more and more things can be done online.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages 127 airports of which 86 are operational and involve an investment of Rs 40,000 crore for improvements by 2010.

Plans entail restructuring and modernisation of major hubs at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Total development also outlines plan for new terminal buildings at seven airports, new runways at Mangalore and Vizag, strengthening and extension of existing runways at 14 airports, and construction of taxiways and aircraft parking bays at 26 airports.

From developments in ground security systems to protect assets of airports to individual passenger checks, from ground movement and final approach control technologies through to apron, runway and taxiway design, there has never been a more exciting time for airport infrastructure.

UNI

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