Times of India: Surat: Friday, March 23, 2018.
Failure on
the part of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) authorities to act against
illegal construction by realtors has not only jeopardized the prospects of
enhanced domestic air connectivity in the city but almost robbed it of an
international airport.
Information
sought from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) under the Right to Information
(RTI) Act regarding the height of buildings obstructing the flight path at
Surat airport points to a needle of suspicion towards the civic authorities.
In the case
of a residential apartment, as per the RTI data, the NOC data record with AAI
suggests the building’s longitude and latitude as 21.83745N and 72.460237E with
elevation of 51.70 metres. However, in the survey it was revealed that the
building was located at 21.82718N and 72.455014877E with top elevation of 54.40
metres. This means that the building plan was approved in the ‘X’ plot and
construction done in ‘Y’ plot with increased height of 8.53 metres.
The AAI had
issued notices to 18 residential apartments asking them to remove obstacles
that obstructed the flight path of aircraft on January 31, 2018 (the copies of
which are with TOI) but majority of them managed to get NOC from the former on
the site location plan approved by the SMC.
A resurvey at
the Surat airport was carried out on July 27 and July 28, 2017 in respect to
the obstacles on runway 22 end-Vesu side. In the survey, jointly undertaken by
Surat airport officials, the AAI’s central and regional headquarters and the
SMC, it was found that the 18 buildings’ height obstructions ranged from 0.56
metres to 12.38 metres. This was because the realtors had altered the location
coordinates and constructed buildings on the plots, not mentioned in the
original plan and also increased the height of the structures.
The AAI wrote
to the concerned secretaries of the building societies and made them aware
about the violation of the terms and condition of the NOCs issued and sought
initiation of action for the removal of the obstacles.
C R Paatil,
BJP MP from Navsari, told TOI, “The civic authorities are directly responsible
for overlooking illegal construction. The realtors managed to get NOCs for
particular plots but carried out constructions at other sites. I have demanded
that the buildings constructed in plots other than the approved plans should be
demolished, licences of architects cancelled and criminal cases filed against
realtors and the civic officials.” SMC additional city engineer Ketan Patel
said, “The NOCs were issued by the AAI many years ago when the land coordinates
were measured in distance and not in latitude and longitude. Then AAI did not
even have enough staff to carry out the field survey. The civic body has no
direct say in the issue.”