Sophisticated instruments, indigenously designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru called as – DRISHTI, have now been made fully operational at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. They are used for reporting the runway visual range, which is a critical parameter for safe landing and take-off of aircraft in poor visibility conditions (<25 to >2000 meters). Drishti Transmissometers have been installed at this airport recently, as a part of the first phase installation of 20 such systems in 10 airports across the country.
The CAT III B IGI Airport, New Delhi, is now the first Airport in the country to have 10 indigenous systems operating in all its three runways.
Earlier, a milestone was achieved in the field of aviation safety, when CSIR-NAL and India Meteorological Department (IMD) signed a partnership agreement to jointly execute a mega project for installation of nearly 70 Drishti systems, at various Airports of the country.
The Drishti field site system is completely designed and fabricated at CSIR-NAL. IMD has established the dual mode “Landline” and “Wi-Fi” communication along with multiple displays at Air Traffic Control Room and Approach Radar Room. The development of ‘Drishti Integrated Visibility Software’ by CSIR-NAL, wherein the data from all the Drishti systems of all the runways of IGI Airport can be viewed on a single screen at ATC has eased out computer and instruments congestion at ATC and would aid the MET officer to easily report visibility data to pilots.
The Drishti system is very cost-effective and is a mandatory system required at all airports as per International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The complete system is engineered in such a way to enable easy installation and maintenance.
Another advantage of this indigenous system is that CSIR-NAL can do the health monitoring of the system through web enabling from Bengaluru itself. This drastically reduces the cost of maintenance, which is exorbitant in case of imported systems.