75 Percent of Airspace in Nepal to Come Under Radar Surveillance

With support from Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA), Civil Aviation Authority Nepal has installed a new radar that has 75 percent coverage of airspace. The installation is done in Bhatte Danda in Lalitpur, writes The Himalayan Times.

The Mono-pulse Secondary Surveillance Radar installed is considered as the most advanced radar system in the world which covers a range of 250 nautical miles of air space. It is under test along with the old radar. The new system will be implemented from February 1, 2018.

The current radar cannot scan aircraft that fly between mountains or below the height of 500 feet, according to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) officials. But the new system will eradicate the problem.

The advanced technology is expected to boost the performance of the airspace coverage up to 500 percent as it covers 250 nautical miles of airspace. In contrast, the current system tracks aircrafts up to only 50 nautical miles.
Information from the Bhatte Danda station is transmitted to TIA almost at the speed of light. TIA is currently accommodating 4,096 airplanes whereas with the new radar it can accommodate 17 million aircraft.

This wider space coverage can even track aircrafts flying in Indian territory as well as various parts beyond the Himalayan in the north.

With this new system, representative of JICA, Jun Sakuma hoped that the air traffic of Nepal will be improved to a great extent.

Similarly, Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Masashi Ogawa said, “I hope this support from us will strengthen relations between our two countries”.

The new radar is sure to improve the airspace of Nepal drastically.