Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court today issued notices to Director General of Civil Aviation, Chairman Airports Authority of India and Commissioner of the Surat Municipal Corporation on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction/order to remove obstacles (high rise buildings etc) around the Surat Airport for the safety of passengers, crew and aircraft.

The court of Acting Chief Justice Anant S Dave and Justice Viren Vaishnav issued the notices on the PIL filed V S Bhamburkar and gave the 3 respondents 4 weeks time to reply fixing the next date of hearing of the matter for April 29

Counsel of Bhamburkar, K R Koshti said that the PIL is not having any adversarial effect against any of the Respondents but is filed only with the purpose of ensuring the safety and security of the lives and limbs of people using the Surat Airport as well as those around it.

‘Surat Domestic Airport, was constructed by the Government of Gujarat in the 1990s with a 1,400 meter airstrip. It was transferred to the AAI in 2003. In 2007, the length of the airstrip was extended to 2,250 meters to enable operations of larger aircraft. Subsequently, the runway was extended to a length of 2905 meters as it stands today. After Ahmedabad, the Surat Domestic Airport is the busiest airport of Gujarat and handles about 260 flights a week, i.e. more than 37 flights a day. It handled 1,94,688 in FY 2016-17 and 6,81,465 passengers in FY 2017-18,’ the PIL mentioned.

‘Among other things that are mandatory for an operational airport, one aspect that is non-negotiable is: an airfield – a large, open space, without any obstructions or impediments for aircraft to land and take off. It is necessary to have the airfield clearly visible from the skies for reasons that are obvious. For this the heights of the buildings not only within the airport, but even those around it, need to be regulated. It is for this reason that the concepts of approach and
take off climb surface, inner approach surface, inner transitional surface, (more commonly known as the funnel), inner horizontal surface etc. have been calculated and have to be strictly adhered to. It is to adhere to these directions that government notification Nos. S.O. 84(E) earlier, now replaced by G.S.R. 751 (E) dated 30.09.2015, were brought into force,’ the PIL further reads.

‘The Notification clearly details out the areas in/around the airport that are supposed to be completely free of any impediments/obstructions and areas where there are height restrictions. It is therefore a matter of great astonishment that despite such unequivocal rules/norms/guidelines being in force, there are about 90 obstructions in/around the Surat airport, which translate into 40 projects/societies. The said obstacles were identified, a joint survey by the AAI and the SMC in the presence of owners/representatives of the said obstacles was carried out and notices for demolition were also served as far back as 10.08.2018 onwards, i.e. over seven months back. Therein, the extent of violation range from 1 meter to 14.3 meters. Astonishingly, despite not just the fact of there being obstacles in/around the Surat Airport, including in the path of flight, the matter has been sought to be kept in the dark instead of disseminating the information widely in order to forewarn those at risk. The phrase ‘in the dark’ seems to be true in the literal sense because many of the high rise buildings in the vicinity of the airport are without anti-collision lights. Even the personnel connected with flight operations have been kept in the dark. NOTAM or Notice to Airmen are notices distributed by means of telecommunication containing information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard, the timely knowledge of which is essential to personnel concerned with flight operations. No NOTAMs, have been issued in this regard,’ the PIL said.

‘Usually, a passenger taking a flight would not even be aware of NOTAMs. Much less so, those using the buildings that are identified as obstacles by the AAI. Thus, the dangers lurking at the Surat Airport during both, the take-off as well as the landing of flights at Surat Airport are simply ignored. It is only divine providence that has ensured that no gory and unprintable mishap of humungous proportions has taken place at Surat Airport till date.

The PIL also claimed that the petitioner had sent a representation to the AAI and the SMC in Ferbuary this year (on 07.02.2019 and 13.02.2019 respectively), urging them to take immediate action in the interest of ensuring the required safety but they did not respond. It has termed that above matter brazen violation of norms under the nose of the DGCA, AAI and SMC and sought a detailed probe also.

DeshGujarat