Fog grounds 24 Bagdogra flights - Passengers suffer as state fails to take over land for Instrument Landing System at airport

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 14: Dense fog today forced the cancellation of 24 flights at the Bagdogra airport where the Instrument Landing System that enables the operation of planes even at night couldn't be installed because of the state government's inability to acquire land.

"The dense fog over the airport today prevented almost all aircraft, except one, from landing here today. In total, 12 aircraft could not land or take off. So, 24 flights were cancelled. The airline companies will accommodate most of the passengers on tomorrow's flights. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope there will be a clear sky tomorrow," said Rakesh Sahay, the airport director of Bagdogra.

No airport official could recall such a large number of flights being cancelled at Bagdogra on a single day in recent years.

Every year, flights are cancelled at Bagdogra because of fog and haze, particularly in the rainy and winter seasons. The Airports Authority of India that operates the Bagdogra aerodrome had decided to install the ILS around four years back. Later, the Indian Air Force, which manages the runway and the Air Traffic Control at Bagdogra, announced that it would install the ILS under the Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) programme.

However, the system is yet to be put in place as the state government is unable to acquire the land needed for the project.

According to AAI sources, it needs a total of 24.16 acres for installing the ILS to guide planes at night and during inclement weather. Out of the 24.16 acres, 9.97 acres are with the Indian Air Force.

The remaining 14.19 acres were with 15 families who had encroached on the land. The government had handed over compensation to most of the families and they vacated 12.91 acres.

However, 1.28 acres are yet to be cleared. Of the 1.28 acres, there is a temple on 0.12 acres, while five families own the remaining 1.16 acres. "The five families are not ready to accept the compensation at the rate offered by the state government, that is, 1.5 times the official value of the land. On one hand, the state can't pay more, while on the other hand, the families are not ready to vacate the land," said an airport source.

The ILS enables planes to land and take off even if visibility is around 350m.

"It has been planned by the IAF to install CAT-II (Category II) ILS in Bagdogra. Once installed, it can help flights land and take off even if visibility is around 350m. Since the ILS is not there, aircraft need a visibility of 2,100m. Today, the visibility was around 1,000m because of the fog, which led to cancellation of flights," the airport source said.

"We are desperately waiting for the land to be handed over by the state government so that the system can be installed and flight cancellations can be stopped in Bagdogra," added the source.

The ILS, a component of which is the Approach Lighting System (ALS), is a ground-based technology that guides an aircraft through a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays to enable safe landing and take-off when visibility is poor because of fog, rain, or blowing snow and darkness.

Because of the cancellation of the flights, around 3,500 passengers - 1,800 of them were supposed to arrive and 1,700 were to have taken flights from Bagdogra - faced inconveniences today.

The sole aircraft which landed and took off from Bagdogra is the Druk Air flight - the only international airline that operates through Bagdogra - bound for Bangkok from Paro.

"The flight landed around 1pm from Paro and left for Bangkok at 1.20pm. It was possible because during these 30-35 minutes, the fog cleared to some extent and the visibility increased," the airport source said.

Among the passengers who had to face inconvenience included M.B. Rai and Purnamaya Rai, who had arrived at Bagdogra from Kalimpong with their two daughters to take the Vistara flight to Delhi. "One of my daughters is undergoing airhostess training and she has her graduation ceremony in Delhi. We arrived to take the flight today but were told about the cancellation because of weather problems. It is disappointing," Rai said.

"We hope the sky would be clear tomorrow."