Wi-Fi facility at Kangra airport soon

Kangra, August 5

The Kangra airport will get the Wi-Fi facility within a fortnight if BSNL supports and coordinates with the airport authorities here in right perspective.

Stating this here on Tuesday, Parwinder Tiwari, Director, Kangra airport, said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) would equip the Kangra airport with doppler very high frequency omnidirectional radio range (DVOR), which is a distance measuring equipment (DME), shortly to avoid cancellation and diversions of flights by 50 per cent.

The DVOR equipment had arrived at the installation site and the state government had exempted the entry tax of the equipment as a positive gesture.

He said the DVOR installation cost would be Rs 1.87 crore. At present, the runway visibility was 5,000 metres, which will improve to 2,400 metres after its installation.

He said the airport would have more facilities by the end of this year. He said prepaid taxi facilities would also be made available within a month or so. A snack bar had been set up at the airport lounge and granite flooring was laid at a cost of Rs 65 lakh. Located at a height of 2,492 ft above sea level and spread over 1,269 acres, it is the only airport in the state, which could be expanded further.

The state government had assured to provide 153 acres for the proposed expansion of the airstrip from the current length of 1,375 metres to at least 1,930 metres to increase the capacity of apron and have instrumental Landing System (ILS) here, he said. — OC