Surat: Preparations are underway to install CAT-I approach lighting on Runway No.22 Vesu to increase visibility at Surat Airport. The airport authority has demanded 8 acres of land from the collector to install Cat-1 approach lighting at Surat airport. With no Cat-1 facility at Surat airport, the flight has to be diverted from Surat due to reduced visibility in winter. At present the airport has only a general approach lighting system, which is not sufficient to meet the airport’s need to combat conditions such as fog.
Surat Airport has been demanding 8 acres of land from the Gujarat government for many years. Now Collector Ayush Ok himself has taken interest and tried to push the matter forward. The information sought by the Collector from Surat Airport may not have been provided till date. Due to which the work has stopped. Land acquisition will also take a lot of time. Due to non-availability of land, it is difficult to install lights, but the possibility of paying compensation to the farmers for the area to be installed in the land is being tested. Because, Cat-1 is used by the pilots for landing the aircraft before the runway.
Due to construction adjacent to the runway of Vesu 22, the total runway of 2905 meters has been cut to 615 meters towards Vesu. That runway land cannot be used for aircraft movement. However, here this ground can be used by inset type light CAT-I on the ground surface itself.
Air India’s Kolkata flight suspended from December 25
The number of flights from Surat airport is continuously decreasing due to infrastructural inconveniences. Now Air India has suddenly announced the decision to suspend the Surat-Kolkata flight from December 25. There is a discussion going on in the aviation group as to why the airlines took this decision despite the large number of passengers being received on this route.