Work on the engineering design of the spiral torch-shaped air traffic control (ATC) tower proposed at Kolkata airport has started. The tower at 86 metres will be the second tallest tower in the country after Delhi, where a 102m tower is under construction.
The tower in Kolkata will pip the recently commissioned tower at Mumbai airport that is 83.8m tall.
The proposed tower will be located close to the administrative building and away from the terminal buildings. In fact, the present tower building will be demolished to make way for the second phase of airport modernization, extending the passenger terminal to augment the capacity to 18 million passengers per annum if the traffic growth so demands.
The completion deadline for civil work on the ambitious project is 24 months. Thereafter, fitment of equipment and approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) could take another year. “The tower would be commissioned and fully-functional by 2017-end,” the airport director said.
While the tower’s futuristic design could propel it to an iconic status in the city architecturally, controllers are looking forward to the new tower for reasons beyond aesthetics. Not only is the current facility ineffective to monitor aircraft in certain sections of the airport’s apron area, particularly those parked in bays along the international wing of T2, modernization of the ATC-—crucial for enhanced safety of flight operations—has also been constrained by the space crunch at the present building.
Once the tower is ready, it will be easier to roll out the automation and air traffic management system.
The technical block will house flight data processing system, radar data processing system, data control processing system and new monitors.
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