SHILLONG: The High Court of Meghalaya has expressed unhappiness over the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Umroi airport not being useful.
“It is quite astonishing that all along the impression was given to the court that ILS as installed is useful but same is far from reality”, said the division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice HS Thangkhiew.
During the hearing, it was revealed that the ILS installation has not been useful.
The court said it has been noticing that the Airport Authority of India right from the beginning, has been projecting from time to time different technical issues and other issues oblivious of the fact that in a detailed order, the court had made it clear that incase the airport is not made functional on expected lines, then the Airport Authority of India not only owes an explanation regarding submissions based on which the state government had to invest huge amount.
“We hope that the court will not be constrained to pass such orders which may have far reaching effects but before we do so, we give them the chance to do whatever is required for making the airport absolutely operational for takeoff and landing of the flights from Umroi to Delhi”, the order said.
Earlier, an affidavit filed on behalf of Ministry of Civil Aviation along with the minutes of the meeting held on May 20 presided by Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, revealed that commercial viability has still remained a question.
The counsel for the respondents-Zoom Airways stated that two weeks’ time may be granted to enable the present CEO of Zoom Airways to work out a practicable solution to the problem.
The matter will come up for hearing on June 12.
