CCEA on Thursday approved the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Isro?s proposal for the implementation of the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) project for seamless navigation over Indian airspace at an estimated cost of Rs 774 crores. With the GAGAN system installed, India will be the fourth country in the world to have a satellite based navigation system.
An ex-post facto approval has also been given by the CCEA for Rs 148 crores that has already been spent in the first phase of the project. The implementation of the system is expected to change the complete aircraft route system in the country allowing for seamless travel for the entire Southeast Asia, sources in the AAI said.
?For instance, an aircraft travelling from Pakistan to India will not have to change its route to match the Indian airspace routing system as they have to do now,? a ministry official said. ?An aircraft will not have to realign itself before landing and can straight away land on a turn, in a matter of speaking,? he added. The AAI presently uses ground based terrestrial navigation system for providing safe navigation over the Indian airspace. This system has many limitations and range problems due to which the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 1993, endorsed a Global Satellite Navigation System as a future Air Navigation System for Aviation.