Air traffic control tower gets waterlogged, triggers scare at IGIA

PANIC ATC controllers had to run down flooded stairs of 26storey building, fearing electrocution as equipment stopped working

NEW DELHI: The newly built Air Traffic Control tower at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), expected to be operational by October 2018 and capable of handling at least one flight every minute, every day, was waterlogged when heavy rain pounded the national capital on June 9, panicking the handful of staff inside and exposing a suspected structural flaw in the building.

ATC controllers on duty at the time had to run down the flooded stairs of the 26-storey building, fearing electrocution, after equipment being installed inside the tower and the elevators stopped working. ATC was not controlling air operations from the new tower at the time.

“Imagine what could have happened if full operation had moved here. The entire air operation from Delhi would have shut down. This would have also affected flight operations up to Lucknow, Amritsar and Udaipur,” said an ATC officer on condition of anonymity.

Built at a cost of ₹350 crore, the tower is expected to replace the existing ATC building in the next three months.

It is 101.9 metres high and adjacent to the present ATC building. Once operational, the new tower will be the tallest ATC building in India and seventh tallest in the world.

The present ATC tower is 60 metres high and was built in 1999; it is at a considerable distance from the third IGIA runway constructed in 2008.

At present, Delhi Air Traffic Control handles more than one flight operation every minute; 1,100 landings and take-offs happen every day along with 250 flights passing over Delhi with a different point of origin and bound for a different destination (such a plane leaving from Bombay and flying over Delhi to an airport in Europe). In all, more than 40,000 movements are handled a month.

Terming the incident “scary”, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has now taken up the matter with senior authorities and has also informed the airport operator, the GMR Group-led Delhi International Airport Ltd, to rectify the “serious structural flaw” in the new building.

Confirming the incident, an AAI spokesperson said, “It was on June 9, during heavy downpour, that the water seeped in through the ceiling of the tower. Be it the elevators or stairs, there was water all around, even in the main area where equipment are installed. Taking adequate precautions, the staff was safely evacuated. The matter has been taken up with senior authorities and the GMR group, which carried out the construction and handed over the building to AAI, has also been informed for timely rectification of the design flaw,” said an official.

The AAI also said the incident had caused “serious concern” in the ministry of civil aviation and added that efforts were being made to ensure that it is not repeated.

Imagine what could have happened if full operation had moved here. The entire air operation from Delhi would have shut down. This would have also affected flight operations up to Lucknow, Amritsar and Udaipur. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER