Bombay High Court (File)The Bombay High Court Thursday asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) if it had relaxed height restriction norms for structures around the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) which raised concerns over structures around airports posing a threat to the take-off and landing of flights.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik also asked the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to be made a party in the PIL filed by advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy in 2019.
The PIL said several structures were constructed in violation of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Height Restrictions for Safeguarding of Aircraft Operations) Rules, 2015. The petitioner referred to a press not by the CIDCO and said the authority amended the norms to grant no-objection to constructions of buildings within a 20-kilometre radius of the airport as it raised the height limit from 55 metres above mean sea level (AMSL) to 160 metres.
The court also directed the Mumbai Suburban district collector to proceed with the demolition of 15 structures which violated height norms around Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA).
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The Mumbai Suburban collector, through an affidavit, had told the court that 48 of the eight structures, including unauthorised portions of buildings near the CSMIA which are flouting height norms and are in the way of approach surfaces of the runaways, will be demolished in a month.
Nidhi Choudhari, the collector, added that of the 48 structures, the collector’s office was facing difficulty in ascertaining details of 15 and thus, action could not be taken against them. She further said that while eight structures would be demolished in a month, 22 structures have already been removed as per Mumbai International Airport Limited and the process to identify the remaining three structures is on.
On July 29, the bench directed the Suburban collector to take steps to remove the 48 structures and comply with the orders of the Director General of Civil Aviation. It held the collector responsible for not taking steps to demolish any such unauthorised structure and asked it to file an affidavit, listing steps that will be taken to remove the 48 structures.
Thereafter, the collector submitted that eight structures have been identified for removal and the Deputy Collector (Encroachment removal) is instructed to immediately hold a meeting and get the structures removed within a month. The affidavit further said that there were several difficulties to remove structures for a lack of details on the record of structures.
The bench perused the affidavit and referred to the extended height of the foot-overbridge over Western Express Highway at Sambhaji Nagar and questioned what was the difficulty in demolishing it along with 15 other structures. It said that the collector’s job is to demolish them and not to issue notices and if there is any resistance, the court can be informed.
Shenoy further referred to a press note by the CIDCO which gave relaxation of height restrictions for constructions around Navi Mumbai Airport and said that the moment the state declared to construct an airport in Navi Mumbai, several projects are coming up.
“We are only constructing a memorial of corruption in this country by allowing obstacles around the airport,” Shenoy said.
The bench asked AAI counsel as to what were the height restrictions, to which the lawyer responded that the same was up to 55 metres AMSL.
“Then how come 160 metres it became? How many buildings are permitted yet?” the bench questioned.
The court then asked the CIDCO be made a party to the plea and the press note by it be placed on record by way of an affidavit by the petitioner.
Moreover, it asked the AAI lawyer to take instructions if the CIDCO is granted permission for allowing buildings beyond the permissible height norms and posted the further hearing to Monday, August 29.