With the recent threat of hijacking the Indian aircrafts, received by the Bureau of Civil Aviation, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) International Airport has been put back on high alert.

‘‘As a matter of fact, we can never let our guard down,’’ said S D Avasthi, Director, SVP Airport. ‘‘We convened a security meeting as soon as we came to know of the hijack threat. We do receive periodic inputs from the intelligence agencies and schedule our security arrangement accordingly,’’ said Avasthi, declining to share any specific information regarding the recent threat.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had recently alerted the Indian authorities of a possible hijack of a US-bound Indian flight, following which the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security had put all the major airports across the country on high alert. Security agencies on last Thursday had received another threat to blow up airports in Chennai, Kochi, Coimbatore, Trichy and Thiruvananthapuram.

Talking to Newsline, Avasthi said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is looking after the overall security arrangements, has been on high alert for some time. The private airliners, too, have their own security arrangement in place. ‘‘We have our contingency plans ready and are equipped to deal with any kind of exigency,’’ he said, adding that the airport is strongly being supported by the Indian Air Force in this regard.

Defence spokesperson Wing Commodore T K Singha said, ‘‘Airspace violation of any kind, especially by an unidentified aircraft, is taken very seriously and is thoroughly investigated.’’

Source: Expressindia.com

With signal strength either non-existent or fluctuating even in urban areas, people subscribing to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s cellular service are having a hard time staying ‘mobile.’ This is despite the fact that the Government-owned service has erected more than 300 towers across the State to improve its network. Officials maintain that the towers could not be made functional as BSNL had to purchase equipment, clearance for which was received only recently. They also promise that network problems will be solved soon.

But for Jyoti Mohapatra, BSNL’s promise of connectivity does not ring true any more. “Every time I have to take a call or make one, I have to run out of my bedroom, trying to catch the signal for better reception,’’ says Mohapatra, who lives in Satellite area. ‘‘The network is pretty bad even in Gandhinagar. I spend at least 8-10 hours in my office there. This means that I can’t be reached over phone during office hours. When this is the case in the State capital, what can one say about the coverage in rural areas,” says Ritesh Sharma, adding, ‘‘BSNL authorities should have installed more powerful towers to ensure better coverage.’’

More than 300 towers have been erected across the State to plug network problems but they are either non-functional or are yet to be commissioned, “due to red tape”, says P K Gupta Principal General Manager (mobile operations). ‘‘It is very difficult to avoid delay in any Government organisation. We have a lot of paperwork to do. We are permitted to buy equipment for the towers from only one vendor in the country. Once we install a tower, it becomes functional within 10-15 days. In case of rural areas, the process takes two to three months. But in this case, due to shortage of equipment, there was a delay in commissioning the towers. It is only recently that we received the necessary approval to purchase equipment from three-four vendors. Things will be sorted out soon,’’ he says.

Another reason why the coverage is being hampered is the coming up of new and much taller buildings in areas around the towers which leads to network interference, says Gupta.

As for network problems elsewhere, Gupta says: ‘‘Due to high traffic, there were problems in network coverage three months ago. We have been fine-tuning our services and our network has definitely improved

Source: Expressindia.com