Chennai Metro will derail Airport safety: DGCA
Mamta Todi Khaitan, Express News Service, 16 Dec 2011
NEW DELHI: A safety assessment carried out at the Chennai Airport to explore the viability of the upcoming Metro Rail link has identified several risks. Not only did the assessment, as per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norms, identify substantial risks to aircraft operations but also cites grave security concerns. The assessment, done on various parameters set by DGCA, concluded that there is over 95% risk in allowing the Metro Rail link construction in its current format.
“The DGCA report highlighted how the Metro Rail will bring an impacting change of airport and aircraft operations, how new disaster management rules will have to be laid down, new procedures for missed approaches will have to be figured out,” a DGCA official said. The report also concluded that the electromagnetic effect from the moving train, performance loss of an aircraft, sabotage probabilities and other such critical risks will become paramount.
On a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most substantial risk, DGCA rated ‘7’ to all of these parameters, highlighting the grave danger for giving approval to the Metro project in its current format. “While Metro Rail...offered to cover the surface of the moving train with concrete, they have not specified how strong it will be. A superficial cover will serve no purpose. If the concrete box fails to take the load of the landing aircraft, it will bring in contact 25,000 volts of the Metro line with the aircraft resulting in disaster,” the official said.
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