DIMAPUR, Feb 11 ? Delays and frequent cancellation of flights to and from Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland, would be a thing of the past with the arrival of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) to be installed at the Dimapur Airport over the next couple of months. The Park Air Systems manufactured equipment arrived here in three truckloads recently. The ILS comprising of two parts the localizer and the glide part including DME (distance measuring equipment) would be set up at the northern and southern ends of the runway to facilitate the safe landing of aircraft during inclement weather and poor visibility.
Dimapur is among four other airports in the region to be equipped with the facility, largely due to the unpredictable weather conditions and the terrain. The other three ILS airports include Guwahati, Imphal and Dibrugarh. The Instrument Landing System, manufactured in Norway has been procured at a whooping Rs 1.4 crore, says AAI officer in-charge communication B. Duttagupta and adds that the equipment is the modern version of the ILS installed at Guwahati airport.
In the past, poor weather conditions and lack of proper visibility forced Dimapur bound aircraft to either return to their place of origin or land at Jorhat. The Assam Rifles Training Centre & School (ARTC&S) 3rd mile, situated adjacent to the airport, had earlier provided almost one third of its entire area to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to facilitate in the installation of the ILS.
The system, understandably, would be of little help to the ATR-42 aircraft, whose only advantage is its minimum visibility landing requirement of 2400 metres. The Boeing 737, withdrawn earlier this year, much against the wishes of regular air commuters, stands to benefit from the ILS due to its high visibility demand of 5000 metres. The ILS provides a minimum of 1300 metres landing visibility.
?The ILS will not really serve its purpose if the Boeing 737 is not pushed into service once again,? asserts a frequent flyer when asked to comment on the new equipment here at the airport premises on Sunday. ?The ATR-42 should be considered a bane and not a boon for the people,? he exclaimed.The Airport Authorities of India would have to do much more than just install the ILS; and that practically would mean using aircraft that would benefit from the Instrument Landing System.