Miles of new cables cover Pune-Goa flight distance

PUNE: The length of cables laid at the city airport’s new terminal is almost equal to the Pune-Goa flight distance and about 90km more than a Kolkata-Dhaka aircraft flies.
Hard to believe, but true. The total length of nine different type of cables laid at the facility is 327km. The aerial distance from Goa to Pune is 355km and one has to fly 238km from Kolkata to reach the Bangladesh capital.
Gagan Malik, general manager (engineering-projects) at Pune airport, said, “All the cables winding through the airport are fire resistant. We have laid 90km cables only for IT infrastructure at the new terminal. ”
CAT 6A four-pair UTP cable has been used to facilitate the IT infrastructure at the upcoming swanky facility, to be operational from September. Its total length would almost cover the road distance between Pimpri Chinchwad and Panvel, which is a little more than 100km.
Flexible copper conductor has been laid for providing power to light fittings at the new terminal. Its span is 60km. “Had it been laid in linear form, it would extend till Panchgani,” said a junior engineer of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), actively working at the new terminal site for over a year.
The aerial distance from Panchgani to Pune is 67km. Mahabaleshwar is 69km away from the city.
Aluminium conductor (LT cable) has been used for power distribution at the new terminal. “We have used 57km of LT cable at the facility,” said the engineer.
The length of the aluminium cable laid at the facility would stretch up to Lonavla from the city. The monsoon getaway is about 55km from the city.
“We have used fire retardant, low smokeHT cable to provide 11KV high tension power to the airport’s new terminal. It stretches 2km. Chances of the cable heating up because of high voltage power supply is negligible,” said a supervisor at the site.
Glass mica tapped copper cable has been laid for the fire detection and alarm system at the new terminal building. “We have laid 45km of this cable for the safety of flyers using the new facility and officials working there,” the site supervisor said.
“All the cables used at the facility are fire retardant. We have been extremely careful while selecting them. Some of them are capable of withstanding 950°C temperature for two hours in case of a fire,” said the AAI engineer.