Quietly, permissible height of buildings around airports hiked

Mumbai: The Union civil aviation ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have quietly doubled the maximum permissible height of constructions allowed around airports in India. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said a major reason for the increase — from 150 to 300 metres — is that more permissions are being sought for taller buildings in all major metros, including Mumbai.
In Mumbai, this would mean that taller structures could be allowed in areas 1.5km or more from the airport. Builders wanting to go vertical in areas like Andheri, Santa Cruz, Kurla, Bandra, Ghatkopar and other regions further from the airport stand to benefit. According to airport rules, no construction is allowed upto 150 metres from runways. From 150 metres to around 500 metres, construction is allowed only for airport operations. After that, a 1-metre high construction is allowed for every 7 metres one moves further from runways, except for take-off and landing paths, for which a 1-metrehigh construction is allowed for every 20 metres one moves further from the runways.
Roughly speaking, this means a 100-mt-high construction can be 1.2km from the runways and a 150-metre-high construction can be around 1.5km from runways. But whereas earlier the construction limit would be capped at this distance, now builders can go in for taller structures the further a plot is from the airport. A 200-metre-high construction could be 1.9km away and a 300-metre-tall building could be 2.6km away.
25/07/09 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2009, Safety Jul 2009