Mumbai airport buys advanced mobile command post vehicle from city vendor

Bengaluru: Mumbai is taking a leaf out of Bengaluru's book by acquiring an advanced mobile command post vehicle or MCP for its international airport. The Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), which operates the Kempegowda international airport, was the first airport to buy an advanced MCP vehicle last year but made no noise about it.
“Every airport has an MCP vehicle but usually it's just a jeep with essential requirements. The technology of our MCP is most advanced; we can now handle even a crash at the airport without loss of time. Besides, connectivity with the airport will not be disturbed since we can quickly get back to our normal operations," Hari Marar, president of airport operations, BIAL, told ET. The International Civil Aviation Organization and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation have mandated MCPs for all airports in the country .

Mistral Solutions, a product design and engineering service company based in Bengaluru, is the provider of the vehicle to BIAL and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

“The project (in Mumbai) is under way and the vehicle is currently being fabricated and integrated by Mistral. It will be delivered to the Mumbai airport authorities by the end of this year. It usually takes five to six months to deliver a full-featured mobile command post vehicle. The MCP for the Mumbai airport is very similar to that used by BIAL with a few additional features like conferencing over 3G and realtime video streaming to the airport's operations centre," said Anees Ahmed, president of Mistral Solutions. The cost of an MCP vehicle is anywhere between 1 crore and 3 crore depending on the features.

The vehicle, according to the BIAL spokesperson, is capable of quickly reaching the site of emergency and undertaking control and coordination of the agencies needed. It works in coordination with the Fixed Emergency Operations Centre located inside the airport terminal. “The synchronization ensures quicker response to emergencies, augmented security at the disaster site, and systematic medical care to the victims," said the official.

Airport accidents usually happen in remote areas. In case of an aircraft crash, the MCP is the one-point coordination for fire and rescue management, security , evacuation, medical aid, ambulance management and other emergency responsibilities.