The new air traffic control (ATC) equipment installed by Raytheon will be functional at New Delhi airport by October 29 and at Mumbai airport by 1998 January, minister of state for civil aviation Jayanthi Natrajan told Business Standard.
The US-based company had failed to meet the deadline for carrying out all tests of equipment installed at New Delhi ATC tower. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) had decided to invoke the penalty clause against Raytheon for failing to keep to January 31 1997 deadline for carrying out system-site acceptance tests for Delhi international airport.
But, later it decided to refrain from taking any action following another request from the company to extend the deadline till April.
The new system will equip the ATCs to find out whether the aircraft is gaining or losing height and it even gives out audio-visual warning to the controllers.
In the primary radar which is being currently used by the ATCs, only distance and direction can be tracked which is complemented by verbal communication with the pilots.
