“The trials are over and the reports have been sent to the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) for clearance,” said M G Jhungare, General Manager, Air Traffic Control (ATC), Mumbai.

Although a timeframe for implementation of corridors has not been fixed, a senior ATC official said the new routes would be implemented by year-end in all likelihood.

As reported earlier, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) is not in favour of helicopter movements at Mumbai airport as they slow down operations at the airport where a landing or a take-off takes place approximately every 30 seconds. The proposal for dedicated helicopter corridors has been pending with DGCA for the past three years. “There are over a dozen corridors on which testing was done. Corridors like airport to Mahalakshmi Racecourse or airport to South Mumbai are examples. Because helicopter movements have been increasing over years, there was a definite requirement for dedicated corridors so that they don’t interfere with the airport’s flight operations,” said the official.

At present, Mumbai airport uses dedicated visual reference points (VRP) in the north and south of the airport to monitor helicopter movements to and from the airport. There are two reporting points in north and south of the airport (south of Air India hangar in Kalina and north of international terminal at Sahar). In terms of helicopter movements, an average of at least 15 helicopter movements are recorded with choppers flying over the Mumbai airport airspace, a definite cause of delays in airport operations.