Surat: While airport activists are eagerly awaiting action on residential buildings obstructing flight path of aircraft landing and taking off from Surat airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is still clueless on the removal of obstructions and restoring the length of the runway to 2,905 metre.
Replying to a right to information act (RTI) filed by a city-based activist, AAI accepted that lowering of the height of building obstructing the flight path of aircraft at Surat airport may take longer time than expected due to involvement of agencies in the process. However, it is unable to give any timeline for clearing the building height.
On the contrary, AAI submitted that all other requirements and directions from the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) for displacement of 615 metre of runway due to building height obstruction have been cleared, including safety operating procedures (SOP) and commissioning level safety assessment.
According to AAI, there are some obstacles identified in survey of 2016-17. However, from safety point of view, runway of 615 metre on Vesu side has been displaced to safeguard flight operations. AAI has served notices to all the concerned buildings and societies under intimation to local administration and DGCA.
“When everything has been completed by AAI, for whom is it waiting for to restore the original length of runway. Even though the runway has been extended up to 2,905 metre, still the aircraft have to use only 2,290 metre of runway. It is the responsibility of DGCA and municipal corporation to ensure that the height obstacles are removed,” an airport activist said.
RTI activist Rajesh Modi said, “Airline companies are hesitating to operate from Surat airport because they have to pay load penalty. The runway length is big enough, but the airlines can use only 2,290 metre runway. For a big aircraft having 180 passenger capacity, the airline has to accommodate only 140 due to load penalty. The authorities must seriously work in clearing the obstacles, otherwise airport development will be a distant dream.”
