BIA gets new frequency

S Praveen Dhaneshkar, DH News Service, Bangalore:

The Airports Authority of India has adopted a new VOR (Very High Frequency Omni-directional Radio Range) for the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at Devanahalli after it was found that its VOR of 112.3 MHz was also being used by the INS Rajali, a naval airbase of the Indian Navy at Arakkonam, TN.

The new frequency would be 116.8 MHz, senior officials from AAI told Deccan Herald on Wednesday.

“This move has been initiated after complaints from pilots of flights taking off from the Chennai International Airport that their aircraft panels showed that the flight was just 20 nautical miles from the BIA, where as the aircraft was actually 120 nautical miles from the airport. This confusion prompted us to initiate urgent action and effect a change” AAI officials added.

When BIA was being constructed, the AAI had no idea that the naval base at Arakkonam, too had the same VOR. “The Wireless Planning Commission, Ministry of Communi cations and IT while granting the radio frequency signal did not realise the issue and it went unnoticed” said officials.

Meanwhile, AAI has written to the authorities at the Arakkonam naval base to switch off their VOR facility temporarily, until the VOR at the ATC (Air Traffic Control) at BIA is changed.