Cantonment, AAI in row over airport expansion

Chennai: The St Thomas Mount and Pallavaram Cantonment Board has issued demolition notices to Chennai airport and Airports Authority of India (AAI), stating that the ongoing expansion work was being taken up without sanction from the board.
The 14-member board passed a resolution at the council meeting on July 19, stating that the buildings for extension of domestic and international terminals have come up without its approval. It said that construction of all floors, superstructure for parking, storage yard and a building for cooling equipment are in violation of section 247 (illegal erection and re-erection) of the Cantonments Act, 2006. Under sub section (1) of section 248 of the Act (power to stop erection or to demolish), the chief executive officer of the board issued notices to demolish the buildings.
Under the act, the Cantonment Board also has powers to stop the ongoing work. "We had told the airport authorities several times that the construction is illegal as they did not get approval for the building plan from us," said Cantonment Board chief executive officer G Vijaya Bhaskar.
Around 550 acres of the 600-acre airport premises fall within the Cantonment Board's limits. The rest of the area comes under the Meenambakkam town panchayat's jurisdiction. Construction is taking place on 4.03 lakh sq ft of land, mainly near the airport entrance.
25/07/11 D Madhavan/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2010