Delhi to have the country's tallest ATC tower

Come 2014, Delhi will have one of tallest air traffic control towers of the world.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh today laid the foundation stone of the new 102-metre tall tower that would be built adjacent to the present ATC tower. It will become fully functional by mid-2014.

Once ready, it will be the tallest in the country and seventh tallest in the world. The structure would be 40 per cent taller than the Qutub Minar.

Speaking on the occasion, Singh said "Delhi is a gateway and this tower would be a landmark for the city soon."

The new ATC tower will have 21 controller positions with a 360 degree view at the visual control room and 12 ground controller positions at operational level.

Addressing the gathering, Civil Aviation secretary S N A Zaidi, said that when completed it would be the seventh tallest tower.

He said India is working in developing infrastructure for future needs and air navigation system is going from voice-based to digital, traditional navigation to satellite-based and very soon 100 per cent radar coverage.

He also said that keeping in view of flight disruptions due to fog, airports around Delhi would be upgraded to operate flights using CAT-II instrument landing system.

G M Rao, Group Chairman GMR, said "the new ATC tower will take this airport to a much higher level of efficiency. The exemplary skills of the ATC operators can be fully leveraged, the utilisation of the 3 runways can be maximised and we can achieve much higher air traffic movement per hour, from the current level of 65," Rao said.

He said that to increase the comfort of occupants and reduce building sway, the Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) technology would used in the tower.

The tower has been designed up by HOK International Ltd which has made extensive use of National Airport Transport System's (NATS) expertise through a subsidiary firm called Aviation Solution. NATS would also be reviewing the ATC tower's design and equipment philosophy.

Among others who were present include, DGCA E K Bharat Bhushan, V P Agrawal, Chairman AAI, Srinivas Bommidala, GMR Business Chairman, Airports, and DIAL CEO I Prabhakara Rao.

The ATC tower of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport is the tallest free standing tower in the world with a height of 132.2 metres while Kuala Lumpur International airport's in Malaysia is the second tallest.