Airports Authority of India

Among the FIRs (Flight Information Regions) in Indian Airspace, almost one third of the entire Airspace is controlled/ managed by Kolkata ACC. The responsibility of providing ANS (CNS/ATM) infrastructure for this huge Airspace is undertaken by CNS, Kolkata with installations at Remote stations located in the Eastern & North- East Region and beyond. In fact, with active persuasion from CNS, Kolkata ADS-B data from COCO Islands & SITTWE in Myanmar is now integrated with Kolkata Automation system.

The ANS infrastructure and data/voice connectivity (i.e. Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Automation) to manage this coverage is provided and maintained by CNS, Kolkata.

Facilities provided by CNS Kolkata

• VHF/VCS
• NAVAIDS
• SURVEILLANCE:
• AUTOMATION
• HF TRANSMITTER & RECEIVER & HFRT
• CNS STORES
• UPPER AIRSPACE HARMONIZATION
• SINGLE CONTINUUM UPPER AIRSPACE IN KOLKATA
• INTEGRATION SURVEILLANCE DATA & VHF IN ATS AUTOMATION SYSTEM
• SEAMLESS SURVEILLANCE COVERAGE OVER KOLKATA FIR
• SEAMLESS VHF COVERAGE OVER KOLKATA FIR
• VHF COVERAGE
• MPLS CLOUD ARCHiTECTURE
• ADVANCED SURFACE MOVEMENT GUIDANCE CONTROL SYSTEM (ASMGCS)
• UPGRADATION TO CAT-IIIB ILS WITH AUGMENTED ASMGCS FACILITY

The Aviation Safety Directorate in the region takes care of many responsibilities which are essential for the functionality of the Airports. Like it performs safety audit of all eastern region airports including RCS airports and CNS vital installation stations and monitoring of all AVS-ER audit observations. It also conducts yearly Safety Management System (SMS) training and provide assistants to all field stations to conduct safety assessment of different projects whenever required. Apart from this the Aviation Safety Directorate also conducts the quarterly Regional Safety Committee meeting, yearly aviation safety week and is responsible for vetting of safety assessment documents of all Eastern Region Airports among others.

For any organisation Engineering Department is the backbone who plane and execute various civil and electrical works to provide the infrastructural facilities required. Here in eastern Region Engineering Department does the same for ATC/NAV-AIDS as per the requirement along with proper monitoring and control of construction and maintenance of runways / Taxiways /Apron and other buildings and offices as per the requirement. At present work on the 51.4m-high ATC tower and 33.2-m high ground plus five-level technical block at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata is under construction. The ATS complex will be a 4-star Griha rated green building right from the construction phase. In addition to green practices like rainwater harvesting and reduction in power load from 9,200 kW to 4,800 kW, the building will also have 31,000sqft green area. While the tower height will increase from 34m to 51.4m, the floor area of the complex will go up from 75,500sqm to 2,84,000sqm. The technical block will house around 750 people, mostly controllers and engineers. Also, there will be facility to park 200 cars and 100 two-wheelers.

The Principle objective of Airport Rescue and Fire Services is to “To save lives in the event of an aircraft accident or incident” occurring at, or in the immediate vicinity of, an airport.

The Rescue and Fire Services is provided to create and maintain survivable conditions, to provide egress routes for occupants and to initiate the rescue of those occupants unable to make their escape without direct aid. This also applies to any other incident where life and property can be saved. The safety of the passengers is paramount at airports run by Airports Authority of India. AAI's highly trained Rescue and Fire Services stand ready to provide rescue and fire protection at all times.

There is an airport emergency plan to co-ordinate the efforts of mutual aid agency within the airport and its immediate vicinity. The Rescue and Fire Services is responsible for managing the Airport Emergency Plan and deal the situation accordingly at the aircraft accident or incident as well as safety of the occupants and avoidance of the fire risks in the terminal building & other vital installations at the airport.

Maintain level of Fire protection at airports, Fire prevention & Fire Protection at Terminal & Related Building and Vital Installation, Fire Service Personnel & Equipment's and monitor the performance & ensure the compliance by necessary remedial measure wherever required.

The Department deals with Print and Electronic Media and is responsible for Media briefing, arranging Press Conferences, Analysis of Media Reports, Managing the social media accounts, NlTs, publishing of in-house Journals of AAI and also deals with matters concerning AAl's branding. Corporate Communication (CC) Department deals with the allocation of Media for AAl's Advertisements through the empanelled Agencies while maintaining the implementation of Raj Bhasha Guidelines applicable in this regard. CC Department also deals with matters concerning Sponsorships, Exhibitions, and Seminars etc. within the preamble of CC Policy.

Operations include Air Traffic Services (like Air Traffic Control, Landing & Takeoff, enroute flying, search and rescue services, aeronautical information services etc.), Communication, and Navigation & Surveillance (CNS). This also includes Aviation Security Services, Fire Services at airports and Passenger Facilitation in Airport Terminals.

TRAFFIC STATISTICS OF VARIOUS ACTIVE AIRPORTS OF EASTERN REGION.

FLYING CLUBS / CASUAL OPERATORS

AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES

The Air Traffic Services consist of the following services:

a. Air Traffic Control Services: The Air Traffic Control Services i.e. Aerodrome Control, Surface Movement Control, Approach Control at terminal airports and Area Control Center are provided by personnel stationed in the concerned Air Traffic Control positions of the respective airports and on designated frequencies. The terminal airports operate in coordination with the Area Control Center in Kolkata. The communication with the Aircraft is mostly through two-way VHF R/T and a supplementary cover is provided by CPDLC, H/F and AFTN network.  The Area Control center provide the Area Control Service, flight Information Service and the Alerting Service. The Area Control centers are connected to the terminal airports and adjacent Area Control Centers by Direct Speech Circuits. Area Control Center receives feed from 11 radars (ARSR/MSSR) with a range of 250 nautical miles and 9 ADS-B Ground Stations covering the entire continental airspace and portion of Oceanic airspace (portion of Bay of Bengal) under its jurisdiction. The major routes transiting through the FIR are R460, L759, A465, A791, G450, R581, R325, R344, L507, P646, M770, M773, N895, G472, L301, L510, N877, L524, M875 and P628.

Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata is equipped with an ELDIS ASR/MSSR and INDRA MSSR with a range of 250 nautical miles and an automated ATC system developed by INDRA. Specially designed standard procedures like SIDS and STARS are used to complement laid down ATS routes. To cope up with the periods of very low visibility due to fog, special ILS CAT III (B) equipment is installed at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata. The automation of ATS facilities are at Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneswar, Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi, Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport, Patna, Swami Vivekananda Airport, Raipur and Gaya airports also. Other operational active Airports in the Eastern Region are Jharsuguda, Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, Durgapur (Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited), Pakyong, Cooch Behar, Port Blair (Civil Enclave), Darbhanga (Civil Enclave) and Bagdogra (Civil Enclave).

b. Flight Information Service: The Aircraft operating beyond the radar coverage and outside the control areas are provided with flight information service and advisory service by the Area Control centers. The Nodal center of NOTAM is also at NSCBI Airport, Kolkata.

c. Alerting Service (Search and Rescue): All the airports are established alerting posts and the specific Alerting Services are provided by the concerned Area Control centers. For this purpose close liaison is maintained with agencies like INMCC, THE INDIAN AIR FORCE and the adjacent Search and Rescue coordination centers. The distress signals picked by SARSAT and COSPAS linked to Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

d. Aeronautical Information Services