Curation Team
KOLKATA: The Ahmedabad plane crash has again prompted the Kolkata airport authorities to raise concerns about unauthorised structures in high-rises as threats to flights moving in and out of the city. They have turned their focus on a high-rise complex at Bablatala, which is right across the airport wall, claiming the two top floors of the five towers pose a risk.
The airport officials said they had served seven notices on Loharuka Green Complex, asking the office-bearers to pull down the two top floors at the earliest, which included lift rooms and water tanks, as they were potential hazards in the take-off funnel.
Residents of the complex, which has 102 2 BHK and 3 BHK flats spread across five towers, said the developers had repeatedly shown documents to the airport authorities, proving none of the floors was illegal. “The top floors were sold at a higher price as they offer a view of the airport and flights landing and taking off. Why should we suddenly raze them? They are all legal. We moved the High Court last month, seeking protection and clarity,” said Dhrubajyoti Biswas, president of Loharuka Greens RWA.
The AAI last sent a notice to Loharuka Green Residency Association of Apartment Owners in Jan, saying a building was constructed 357m from the original location, a site for which the airport had granted the NOC in March 2014. “Airports Authority of India, NSCBI Airport Kolkata, has identified a structure (top of the building) that is penetrating the Obstacle Limitation Surface/Obstacle Free Zone and is violating the norms against the ministry of civil aviation – (Height Restrictions for Safeguarding of Aircraft Operations) Rules, 2015, and is a potential hazard for safe aircraft operations,” the order states. It advised the association to reduce the “obstacle” height from the top —10.7 m for blocks A and B, 11.2m for blocks C and D and 6.9m for Block E.
But residents said before the construction, builders had applied for height clearance from AAI in 2013, and the NOC for the particular site was granted in March 2014 “with permissible top elevation AMSL of 35.6 m, including 6m above mean sea level, for five years”. “It was only after getting the NOC that the work was completed by June 2018. BMC issued the CC in Nov 2019. The Co-ordinate Survey of India checked and said our buildings did not come in the aircraft funnel path,” said Biswas. “Our case in the HC will be heard after the vacation.”
Residents said that before the project started, by an HC order in Dec 2012, the area was demarcated by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, North 24 Parganas in Barasat, in the presence of AAI. It was only upon a demarcation and issuance of revised sanctioned plan and other documents that AAI issued a height clearance NOC. “If our buildings are an obstruction for safe aircraft operations, why did they give the NOC? This project has 100-plus flats, all of which have been sold. The request for reducing the height is not maintainable against the developer after the CC was issued. Let the court decide,” said an official.
