Your smooth landing is caught in crossfire

If you are looking forward to a smooth landing at Pune airport, you have a long wait ahead. An administrative stalemate between the Airport Authority of India and the Indian Air Force is causing a delay in the implementation of Instrumental Landing System (ILS) at the airport.

The Pune Airport is undergoing a major facelift with the construction of two new terminals, expansion of the parking lot and better facilities.

The ILS is also a part of this facelift, but AAI has not been able to install the system that can aid smoother landing of aircraft.

This airport area is situated on IAF land and AAI has to get IAF’s permission before making any changes at the airport.

IAF has not given permission as it has raised some queries regarding security reasons. On this issue, AAI and IAF officials had meetings, which did not succeed in reaching a solution.

An airport official said, “This system will help aircraft land smoothly. With the help of ILS, aircraft can be landed in times of low visibility too.

The AAI has purchased this system nearly nine months back. This system has now come to Pune, but is lying unused as we are not getting permission from IAF.

We had several meetings with IAF officials. Now, the matter has gone to the headquarters and the higher authorities will take a decision on it.”

However, IAF says they are not against the ILS, but don’t want to compromise on the security aspect either.

Prashant Pathrabe, defence public relation officer, said, “Security is a concern for IAF. If the security aspect is sorted out, then IAF will not have any problem with ILS.”