Financial Express | Delhi IGI Airport gets India’s tallest ATC tower! 10 interesting facts about the new Air Traffic Control tower

Sep 04,2019

Delhi Airport (DEL) has now got India’s tallest ATC tower after Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri inaugurated it on Monday. The newly built 102-metres tall Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is equipped with modern technology and is expected to be a gem-changer for flight operations at the busy airport.

1. Delhi Airport authority said that the new ATC Tower of Delhi Air Traffic Services (DATS) is the nation’s tallest ATC tower. Its height is 102 metres. The new ATC is expected to enhance air traffic management at IGI airport, the Delhi Airport authority tweeted.

The height of the old ATC was 60-metres and it will be used as a back-up. The old ATC had 28 workstations. If we compare the new one with the old one, the taller one has additional 21 Controller Positions at level 26 and 12, as well as Ground Controller Positions at level 25.

3. Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Anuj Agrawal said that the total cost of setting up the new ATC tower and its facilities were over Rs 350 crore. ATC automated systems, that have been installed in technical blocks, will have additional ATC controller positions. This will reduce the number of flights being handled by a single controller. This will enhance the controller’s efficiency as well as the overall security, Agrawal said.

4. The new ATC tower at Delhi Airport is capable of handling more than 1,200 flights per day with a peak hour handling capacity of 75 flights. AAI, that looks after airports in India, said that the new ATC Tower is future-ready for the big expansion planned at the Delhi IGI airport. Following the expansion, Delhi Airport will have a fourth runway and many new parking stands, taxiways. This will enable additional capacity and slots for the airline industry, the AAI said.

5. ATC towers in Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) in Hyderabad, and Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) in Bengaluru airport stand at 84 metre, 75 metre, and 65 metre respectively. Notably, the height of Qutub Minar is 72.5-metre.

6. However, India’s tallest ATC tower at Delhi IGI airport is not the tallest in the world. There are a total of 8 ATC towers which are taller than Delhi Airport’s new ATC tower. These 8 ATC towers are located at Bangkok Airport, Kuala Lumpur International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Guangzhou Baiyun International and Cairo International Airport, Abu Dhabi and Vienna International, Indianopolis International, Orlando International Airport. The tallest one at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok stands at 132.2 metre.

7. The new ATC at Delhi Airport has equipment worth Rs 60 crore. The ATC has been built in a certain way to prevent it from strong winds. It is earth-quake proof and can withstand a strong quake measuring 8 on the Richter scale.

8. The new ATC tower at the Delhi Airport will use 10 radars, and also receive feed from radars located in Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Udaipur, and Bhopal, as per an HT report.

9. In a convenience for flyers arriving in Delhi Airport, the ‘holdover time’ will be decreased due to this new ATC.

10. The new state-of-the-art ATC will be safe guarded by personnel of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Air Force, Delhi Police, as well as AAI.