Met. Department indicted for compromising air safety

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 12. The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has indicted the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for compromising the safety of air passengers by allowing undue delays in the installation of the Automatic Visual Range Accessors (AVRAs), which are essential for continuous monitoring and measurement of vital meteorological parameters such as the runway visual range, wind speed and direction and air temperature.

In a report submitted to Parliament, the CAG has highlighted how even 10 years after the project to install the equipment in 12 locations across the country was taken up, the equipment was in place in only eight centres and of them, two were yet to be made operational, one because of defective parts and another because of non-availability of the operational vehicles for the routine inspection of the instrument at the field site.

The project, which was taken up in 1990, fell short of the requirement projected by the National Airport Authority (NAA). The NAA had initially requested the IMD to provide the facility at 16 airports. But, the Council of Meteorological and Atmospheric Sciences approved the installation of only 12 AVRAs. The project was to be completed in the Eighth Plan period, which ended in 1997. The AVRAs are particularly needed in the wake of the phenomenal increase in air traffic and induction of larger and faster aircraft.

The AVRAs were to be installed at Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkatta, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Patna, Imphal, Agartala, and Mohanbari. While in all other centres one AVRA was to be installed, two were to be installed in Mumbai, one for runway 09 and the other for runway 14.

According to the CAG report, so far, they have been installed and have become operational in Chennai, Kolkatta, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Guwahati only.

In Hyderabad, the installation work was completed as early as May 1997, but the equipment was yet to become operational in the absence of the specialised maintenance vehicle. In Mumbai, while both the AVRAs have been installed, only one has become operational and the other has not because of defective parts for which replacement was not available. The matter, the report adds, was brought to the notice of the Ministry in July 2000, but there has been no reply.

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