New Delhi: In a bid to ease air traffic
congestion and ensure safety, government has decided to
introduce separate flight corridors for helicopter operations
at Delhi and Mumbai airports.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which
has decided to introduce separate Visual Flight Route (VFR)
corridors at the two airports for helicopter operations, has
also asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to promulgate
these routings and issue necessary notifications soon.
"The notification is likely to be issued very soon,"
official sources said.
The notification of separate air corridors for chopper
operations would also meet a long pending demand of the
helicopter industry. The DGCA had earlier asked the AAI to
design the VFR helicopter routings, following which
suggestions were invited from all helicopter operators.
After several rounds of meetings, suggestions of the
operators and the regulators were considered and the proposed
routes were modified to facilitate chopper operations.
Flight trials were also conducted at both the airports
under the supervision of Flight Operations Inspectors from
Flight Inspection Directorate of the DGCA, following which the
air corridors were finalised.
A large number of choppers operate within the Control Zone
of Delhi and Mumbai airports as also from the Juhu airfield,
which lies within the control zone of Mumbai, for tourism, oil
exploration, corporate and business purposes, and their
operations were often delayed due to air congestion.
PTI
