SAAC demands restoration of original runway extension master plan

Surat: Surat Airport Action Committee (SAAC) has demanded that Airports Authority of India (AAI) restore the original master plan with regard to extension of runway to 3,810 metres at Surat airport.
According to SAAC, the present length of the runway is 2,905 metres, but aircraft that land and take off from the airport use only 2,290 metres runway as Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had displaced 615 metres due to building height obstruction in 2018.
It said information sought under Right to Information (RTI) Act suggests that the building height issue is also at Dumas end of the runway where a residential building is obstructing extension of the runway. The AAI gave ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) to the residential building in 2013 and that the plan for runway extension was changed from 3,810 metres to 3,165 metres in 2016.
SAAC president Sanjay Ezhawa told TOI, “We have demanded that the AAI restore its original plan of extending the runway to 3,810 metres. Like the buildings obstructing the runway in Vesu, the AAI seems to have forgotten about the residential building at Dumas for which it changed the original plan of runway extension. At present, the AAI has changed the master plan for extending the runway due to building height issue at Dumas. If the airport gets 3,810 metres of runway length, we can expect wide-bodied airport to land at Surat airport.”