Indian Aviation Unprepared for Boom ?

Two articles highlight a lesser-known problem with India's infrastructure, aviation. As a growing and already significant player in the global marketplace, connectivity to the rest of the world is only going to increase and aviation is a key transport mechanism in achieving that connectivity. Coupled with this is the opening up of the skies within India itself. Private airlines are mushrooming and with much lower costs than when there was only the state-run Indian Airlines, air travel has increased significantly even within the country. Other infrastructure problems that India faces have received a lot of coverage, but two recent articles highlight the unpreparedness of the aviation industry.

The more recent one is from today's Economic Times titled: India faces a major aviation disaster. Among the many worrying points noted in the article, the most startling one to me is:"Airports across the country are even today connected with the now-extinct teleprinters". There are shortages of Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs), the state of AAI (Airport Authority of India) and inadequate radar coverage of Indian skies. I was also unaware that the defence controls a major chunk of the Indian airspace and that AAI has been unable to negotiate a flexible airspace management policy with IAF (Indian Air Force).

The other article focuses on the lack of using GPS (Global Positioning System) to assist landings. This is from The Hindu on Sep 5, 2005 and the article is titled: Is India ready for the aviation boom?. The article starts with how Mumbai's airport was opened under "unsafe conditions" after the rains shut down the airport for three days and how the use of GPS in airports abroad is the accepted approach. The article says that Indian Aviation chose not to go with GPS due to " their paranoia about Americans".