Over 700 flights take-offs and land at the Mumbai airport every day. The business capital of the country is under a serious threat for improper infrastructure at the nerve centre of the Mumbai Airport, The Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC).
Sources claimed that most of the fire-fighting devices in the building are either defunct or have not been readied for use in case of an emergency, thereby endangering life and property if a fire breaks out. Sources at ATC building near the Cargo complex in Sahar claimed that the building was equipped with 750 smoke detectors at the cost of tens of lakhs, but they are now in a non-working condition. A dozen fire hydrants placed on every floor are in manual mode, even though existing regulations stipulate that they should be in auto mode.
Shanker Gopal, joint general manager (fire), ATC building, said, "It is true that some fire-fighting devices are not in order and need to be serviced. I have personally written to the department concerned (general manager, electrical) twice but nothing has been done. I don't know why the process is being delayed."
The airport has been in continuous controversies since some time when the radars were out of gear. Despite modern aircraft being fitted with radars of different kinds, the lack of weather radar at the airport creates communication problems between the cockpit and the ground staff in case of bad weather. Ground radars were installed in the country's airports at a cost of Rs. 400 Cr only after a hue and cry was raised in Parliament over an Antonov AN-26 aircraft entering Indian airspace undetected, to drop arms in 1995 an incident which later came to be known as the Purulia arms drop case.
On one side the environmentalists are complaining smog and find it unlikely for landing at Mumbai in monsoons. The other side the infrastructure has its own set of pit holes. The fire equipment in condition is a must and the authorities must pay heed to this call of emergency. As Mumbai is the place several tourists prefer landing travelling from all the four corners of the world. The need to address the concern must be done on a war footing.
