India, US working on navigation system

India and the US are working on a satellite-based navigation system to provide seamless travel across the Indian Ocean, Pacific and Atlantic in coming years as both are witnessing exponential air traffic growth, a top US aviation official said.

Observing that the US would record one billion passengers in 2015 and traffic would triple by 2025, US Federal Aviation Administration chief Marion C Blakey said the "real issue was that we are not waiting to do something. We are preparing now" to evolve the next generation air transportation system. The system is a package comprising comprehensive plans for air traffic management, airports, aircraft, security and advanced flight systems. At the heart of this system is satellite-based navigation or Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), which is very similar to India's GAGAN (GPS and Geo Augmentation Navigation System), Blakey said.

When GAGAN and WAAS start working in sync, "we could literally have a safe, seamless system (of air travel) all the way from the Indian Ocean through the Pacific and to the Atlantic". GAGAN is being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, Airports Authority of India and several other agencies including US defence major Raytheon. Kapil Kaul of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said India's air travel would grow in leaps and bounds with the passengers carried increasing from 25 million at present to 60 million in 2010. Referring to the burgeoning aviation sector, he said there would be a 50 billion dollar investment in all spheres of the sector till 2010, as 482 aircraft join the fleets of Indian carriers and airports across the country modernised.

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