HC raps Centre for not making airport CAT-III compliant

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 1

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today came down heavily on the Centre for not making the Chandigarh international airport CAT-III compliant for landing during poor visibility. The Centre also found itself at the receiving end for inadequate extension of watch hours. The case will now come up for hearing tomorrow. The UT has been asked to specify the time required for acquiring land for a parallel runway.

As the case on making the airport fully functional came up for resumed hearing, the minutes of the meeting held on August 22 between the Defence Secretary, the Civil Aviation Secretary, IAF officers and others were placed before the Bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice Lisa Gill by Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal.

Referring to the minutes, Mittal said the IAF informed the members that the existing runway could not be made CAT III compliant as installation of such an instrument landing system would require removal/demolition of certain IAF assets, which were indispensable for operational reasons.

At the same time, the IAF was committed to making the same runway CAT II compliant, which would facilitate operations down to 300-metre visibility. As and when additional land was provided by the state government for a parallel runway, CAT III could be installed on the new runway.

Referring to the issue of runway resurfacing, the IAF informed the members that estimates had been vetted and they were in the process of seeking approval from the Ministry of Defence. Post-approval, the tender process, award of contract and mobilisation would be undertaken within the applicable time lines.

It was decided that the case would be processed in a time-bound manner to obtain sanction on priority and the tenders could be issued by September 30. 

On the issue of extending the watch hours, the IAF said the ATC, Chandigarh, was maintaining watch hours from sunrise to 2000 hours on all days.

After due deliberations, the same was revised from sunrise to 2200 hours from Monday to Friday and on Saturday and Sundays from sunrise to 2000 hours. This was necessary to cater to the operational requirements of adjacent military bases. The duty of the available manpower could not be further extended due to flight safety considerations.

Taking up the matter, the Bench asserted that CAT III was required only for about 10 days during two winter months, and the only structure required to be removed during those days was the arrester barrier system.

Arrester barrier is a system installed at the end of the runway to stop the forward movement of an aircraft overshooting the runway in case of a rejected take-off or an emergency landing with minimal damage to aircraft or injury to the crew.

The suggestion was objected to by the defence. A senior IAF officer then addressed the Bench in the chamber on the issue. Speaking for the Bench, Justice Saron warned the Centre against prosecution of its functionaries for filing a false affidavit. The Bench observed that the land acquired should be handed back to the farmers. “The Centre thinks high courts are its colonies,” the Bench observed.