The Hindu : National : New runway lighting systems at Tirupati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

National

National

New runway lighting systems at Tirupati

By T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI, DEC. 8. As part of its efforts to upgrade the navigational aids at airports to help the pilots, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has installed a "circling guidance lighting system" at the Tirupati airport in Renigunta.

Giving details of the new visual aid introduced on an experimental basis, the Southern Regional Executive Director of AAI, S.K. Saraswati, said a set of seven lights, white in colour, installed at both ends of the extended central line of the runway would guide the pilots while approaching the runway for landing. These are designed to emit a low intensity omni-directional light.

Another two sets of white flashing lights have been installed at the threshold of the runway at right angles to the runway, enabling the pilots to identify the runway threshold while circling the aerodrome. The AAI has imported these lights from Korea at a cost of Rs. 25 lakhs.

The new system will facilitate the pilots to land at "below minimum visibility limits" required under visual meteorological conditions. The system can be operated by a remote control device from the Air Traffic Control tower. The circling guidance lights, the first of its kind in the country, have been provided at the Tirupati airport in accordance with the guidelines laid down under Chapter 7 of the Aerodrome Design Manual, Mr. Saraswati said.

Solar panel

Likewise, the AAI has provided runway "lead-in lights" at the Karipur airport in Kozhikode at a cost of Rs. 170 lakhs. Four sets of lead-in-lights have been installed, each set consisting of 3 numbers of sequential flashing lights installed at stipulated distances from the runway threshold. The lights are powered through batteries connected to a solar photo-voltaic panel modules. Operation of this system can be controlled both locally and by remote control from the ATC tower. The system is designed for three continuous sunless days operation with six hours operation per day.

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