Oman Airports, the country's airport operator, said it has developed a customised portable drilling coring machine to install airfield ground lighting for runway and taxiway at Muscat International Airport. 

 

Oman Airports said this device was developed by its maintenance team in a bid to reduce costs.

 

The initiative is aimed at catering to the needs of both repair and replacement of AGL fittings and comes in line with the efforts to reduce the operational costs of government companies it added.

 

Engineer Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al Hinai, Senior Airport Systems Manager at Muscat International Airport Maintenance Department, said this was a result of the maintenance team's efforts to find an in-house solution using its own expertise. 

 

The specialised team made a tremendous work in designing and modifying an existing core machine used normally in construction work to fulfil the special requirement of AGL installation kit, he added. 

 

Al Hinai said a special vehicle was designed at Oman Airports maintenance workshop to carry out and fine-tune the required measurements during the drilling process.

 

“The device provides for the speed and accuracy required in accordance with the international specifications used in making any necessary changes in the runway, where Oman Airports relies on a well-trained qualified team to carry out these works at a high level of professionalism,” he stated.

 

Explaining the concept, Engineer Adel bin Abdullah Al Yafei, GM (Maintenance) at the Technical Support Unit at Oman Airports, said the modified device can be relied upon to reduce maintenance expenses in aspects of changing and repairing runway lighting in the future, where previously, a specialised strategic partner was assigned to do the work of replacing the runway lights.

 

"With this new device, our maintenance team has created alternatives that commensurate with the current circumstances, in line with the efforts of the rest of the units at airports of Oman, in addition to the aim of reducing expenses and creating more options internally," he added.-TradeArabia News Service