The High Court on Tuesday directed the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to report to it within two weeks on the installing of the Simple Approach Lighting System (SALS) at Srinagar International Airport.
Hearing a Public Interest litigation initiated by the High Court on its own motion, a division bench of the acting chief justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur directed AAI through its counsel Anil Ban to file the status report with regard to the installation of SALS at Srinagar Airport in two weeks.
The direction came after advocate Bhan on behalf of AAI sought two weeks’ time to inform the court about the status of the SALS installation at Srinagar Airport.
Amicus curie in the PIL, advocate Syed Musaib however submitted before the court that there is a palpable delay in the installation of SALS. “Despite court directions the AAI has not filed the status report with regard to status of the SALS installation at Srinagar Airport,” advocate Musaib said.
Notably, the installation of SALS will help reduce visibility from 1300 meters to 1000 meters which will the airplanes to land and take off at the airport in poor visibility
In January this year, advocate Bhan had informed the court that AAI had awarded work contract to a Gwalior based company- M/S Manish Electricals- for setting up SALS at the Srinagar Airport.
He had produced a copy of the allotment order to the court which it ordered to be digitized after taking the same on record. As per the document, the work was to be carried out within six months after being taken up for the execution from 27 January which means it would be completed by 27 July this year.