Delhi airport’s new, tall ATC tower to start operation in Dec

The new 101.9-metre air traffic control (ATC) tower at the Delhi airport — touted to be the country’s tallest — is likely to start operations by December.

The airport operator has handed over the tower to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), whose chief said trial runs will begin soon.

“There is a delay as we have to take care of a lot of things. ATC operation is something that cannot be put on hold. We will start the trial run soon and there will tests for 2-3 months. After that parallel operations will start by December and gradually we will shift to the new tower,” said Guruprasad Mohapatra, AAI chairman.

The tower, among the tallest structures in Delhi, will give a 360-degree view of the airport to BAngkok ATC ABu DhABi ATC the controllers who will be able to see all the three runways, aprons and taxiways.

The tower, built at a cost of ₹350 crore, has come up at a more centralised location. It is adjacent to the present tower and once ready, it will be the seventh tallest ATC tower in the world.

The new tower’s design is based on India’s national flower, the lotus.

The present ATC complex and the 60-metre tower was built in 1999 and is at a considerable distance from the third runway constructed in 2008.

As air traffic grows at almost 20%, the airport operator is changing the master plan to increase the capacity of the terminal and airside.

The new ATC tower and the fourth runway is expected to help to reduce congestion in the air and handle more flights. QutuB MinAr

The Delhi airport will also become the first in the country to have a fourth runway. Construction is likely to start this year.

Officials expect to commission the fourth runway by 2019, which will take the per hour capacity of the Delhi airport from 75 flights to 105.

Coming to the tower, it will give the controllers a commanding view of the entire airport, as well as a much larger working space so that a larger number of people can operate together and reduce work pressure.

The new ATC tower will have 21 controller positions with a 360 degree view at the visual control room and 12 ground controllers at the operational level.

Also, this is for the first time in the country that tuned mass damper (TMD) technology will be used to increase the comfort of occupants and reduce building sway.