The indigenously developed system comes at a fraction of the cost of instruments currently in use
An indigenously developed runway visibility-measuring instrument, Drishti, will soon be deployed at airports in India to help pilots during landing and take-off. So far, India was importing such instruments from countries like Finland and Australia. Drishti comes at a much cheaper cost.
The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) at Bengaluru, an institute under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and India Meteorological Department have signed an agreement on May 22 for the joint production of Drishti system. IMD is responsible for providing navigation services at the airports.
If the instrument, which is said to be extremely accurate, predicts poor visibility, pilots can be advised to take appropriate measures. "The instrument is highly sensitive. It can predict visibility as close as four metres near the ground. We have followed international standards for developing the instrument," says Shubha V, head of Materials Science Division, NAL, who led the research and development of Drishti. Seventy such instruments are being installed all over the country.
Shubha says Drishti’s cost is one-third of that of the instruments currently being used in the country. "The indigenously developed instrument will cost Rs 25 lakh. The ones we import cost several times over. But now that we have developed a cheaper one, other countries have also slashed prices, making the cost equivalent to ours," she said.
Indigenous production of the instrument will serve one more purpose. "So far, we had to import spare parts in case of a breakdown of the instrument. This takes take a long time. Now with the technology in our own hands, we can repair within a couple of hours, at a much lower cost," Shubha said
Drishti has been in use at three airports for the past few years. It has been installed at Lucknow’s Choudhary Charan Singh International Airport for the past three years, at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport for the past one-and-a-half years and at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport for the past two years.
"We needed to check efficiency of the instrument in different weather conditions before installing it at all airports. Indira Gandhi International Airport is the toughest one as far as visibility is concerned. Our instrument performed well there too," said Shubha.
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