AAI staff strike: IAF, Navy to help tide over crisis

About 20,000 AAI employees across the country from the engineering, communications, maintenance and ground handling divisions, under the umbrella of the Airports Authority Employee Joint Forum will go on strike.

Under AAI’s contingency plan, fire brigade personnel trained in aviation safety services and fire tenders from State governments would be pressed into service to deal with potential emergencies.

The ATC Guild, a unit responsible for air traffic management and another unit looking after navigation and surveillance have decided not to join the strike.

‘‘Provisions have also been made for battery-backup and mobile generators so that no system is rendered unserviceable for want of electricity,’’ the statement said, adding that assistance of both the Centre and the states had been sought for maintaining uninterrupted power and water supply.

It also said that installations normally left unattended have been sealed and arrangements made to keep a strict vigil on them so that they are not tampered with. A 24-hour central control room is operational at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan to oversee the plan.