ILS set up at Chandigarh airport

Chandigarh, Jan 11 (PTI) A new Instrument LandingSystem (ILS), which helps aircraft land or take off in poorvisibility, has been installed at city airport by AirportAuthority of India.

However, this would not help an aircraft land if thevisibility is reduced below 1200 metres.

"We have got installed the ILS here in a record time ofone and a half months against the normal time period of 4 to 6months and it will help in landing or taking off of flights inpoor visibility conditions caused by fog or rains," ChandigarhAirport Director H S Toor told reporters here this evening.

ILS provides precision guidance to an aircraft approachingand landing by using radio signals.

With the installation of ILS, the flights can now landor take off safely with visibility of up to 1.2 km or 1200meters. "Without ILS, there needs to be visibility of up to2.4 km," he said.

Because of the poor visibility in Chandigarh due tofog, flight operations here had come to a standstill tillJanuary 10.

In the previous winter, no aircraft could land or takeoff for about a month as the old ILS remained non-operationalbecause of some defect for the past many years.

AAI has signed an MoU with Indian Air Force forsetting up the ILS here. "Under this MoU, we have installedthe ILS while Air Force provided us the land for the same,"said Toor.