India is planning a major move to unify its four Flight Information Regions (FIRs) in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, into one continuous airspace in Nagpur and have harmonized Air Traffic Management from Nagpur which has a unique central location in the country.

The move is expected to enhance safety, reduce carbon footprint, reduce separations (between flights) and have more fuel-efficient flight paths for aircraft.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has asked for a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to be made for Indian Single Sky Harmonized ATM (Air Traffic Management) at Nagpur (ISHAN) and to understand the technology available in Indian and the global market for the job. News18 has a copy of this document.

India is the major air navigation service provider in the Asia-Pacific region and controls over 2.8 million square nautical miles. This quantum of airspace is controlled by India through four flight information regions (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai) with a sub-FIR at Guwahati. India is sharing its Flight Information Regions (FIR) with 12 neighbouring countries.

“As per the growth statistics, there are huge challenges which are mainly safety, airspace capacity, airport constraints, resource management and environmental concerns. These challenges in vast Indian airspace are mitigated through various strategies like the implementation of PBN, Indian SBAS (GAGAN), Upper Airspace harmonization, ATM Automation, and Surveillance coverage by PSR/MSSR and ADS-B over continental as well as oceanic airspace. Having gained experience on upper airspace harmonization at Chennai and Kolkata FIR commensurate with India’s strategic plan India shall now progress towards the Single Sky Harmonized ATM with a standby Disaster recovery system (DRS) located at a different place, Nagpur,” the document with News18 says.