Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi is getting equipped with the Instrumental Landing System(ILS) to allow aircraft to land in rough weather caused by fog or haze.

“At this airport, ILS is not available. Now, it is being installed”, says Ranchi Airport Director KL Agrawal.” The process to install it has begun.”

Experts say that the ILS is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft pilots to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to approach until it is 200 feet over the ground, within a 1/2 mile of the runway.  

Investigation revealed that Ranchi Airport’s ILS was not functional. As a result, due to poor visibility -owing to fog and or haze- in rough weather conditions, the flights fail to land and are diverted to nearby airports.

Which is why on August 12, several flights were diverted to Kolkata and Patna. After weather conditions stabilised, the air passengers returned and landed in Ranchi.

Usually, during the middle of December fog engulfs air space in the early morning and night around Ranchi. This causes blockades in the landing of flights.

The Ranchi Airport officials expect that ILS installation to end and become operational by end of November.” If this happens, flights will start landing in midst of fog before end of the current year 2022”, hopes Agrawal.