Corporation to study buildings near airport

The city Corporation has been tasked with collecting details, including site and building elevation, of 64 buildings in the city, following a meeting with Airport Authority of India (AAI) and State government officials on Tuesday.

The airport authorities will hand over a list of a panel of engineers, who will be collecting the details of the buildings in question. “The airport authorities have asked the city Corporation to carry out the activities. But we do not have enough qualified staff to do these checks. So, the airport authorities will hand over a list of engineers to us, from which the Chief Town Planner and the Corporation Engineer will select the ones to do this job,” said a Corporation official.

This work is expected to be completed within a month. According to the site and building elevations, the owners of the buildings that require an airport NOC need to apply for the same. As per a notification of the AAI, issued in 2008, airport NOCs are mandatory for all buildings in the red zone of the colour-coded map. Buildings within 4.5 kilometres of the airport come under the red zone.

The AAI has made it clear that it will be reducing the span of the red zone in the Colour Coded Zoning Map for the city, following requests from the local body and people’s representatives. Complaints have been raised that the unreasonable stipulations are harming the interests of people in 20 wards around the airport, including the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Manthri Awaz Yojana. A decision on this will be taken before May 31.

It has also been decided to make the relevant changes in the Kerala Municipal Building Rules to reflect the elevation of the site from sea level. Currently, only the height of the building from ground level is considered.