New rules to curb buildings height near Mumbai airport

In what could be a major blow to city builders, the Union ministry of civil aviation has framed new rules for height restriction of buildings in the airport's vicinity. The Bombay high court on December 3 directed the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) to place before it the new rules that came into effect from October this year."It is a matter of concern for all flyers," said a division bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice Burgess Colabawalla.

The bench was hearing an application filed by Parineeti housing society that had sought NOC for the redevelopment of its property. Pointing to Gilbert Hill, the society had sought permissions for a taller building. MIAL counsel informed the HC that the new rule does not take into account temporary displaced threshold to calculate the maximum height for a new building. Instead, the height restrictions will be now calculated from the start of the runway, that is the runway threshold.

"Since the runway length was shortened, there were problems for the landing of bigger, heavier aircraft," said VSP Chinson, general manager (aerodromes), western region, AAI. "The new rules now consider the start of the runway as the point to calculate height restrictions for new buildings," added the officer.

The October rules have also prepared a colour-coded map for the city, classifying it into five divisions based on the permissible height restrictions on buildings around the airport. "The AAI will also introduce an online system, where a citizen can directly check the height restrictions in an area where they plan to buy a flat, irrespective of the promises by the builder," said Chinson. The HC has scheduled the matter for further hearing on December 17, 2015. Last month, another bench of the HC has set up a panel headed by a retired judge to look into allegations that building and height regulations were violated around the Juhu aerodrome and the domestic airport at Santa Cruz.

What this means
Till now, building height permissions around the airport depended upon the height of the already existing structures in the area concerned. So even if a structure put limitations on the use of a runway because of its location and height, other buildings in the vicinity were granted similar height permissions. These obstructions along the flight path meant that a landing aircraft was forced to touch down deeper into the runway. That is, the entire runway could not be used for a landing. The October 2015 rules say that height permissions for the construction of a new building will be calculated on the basis of the beginning of the runway. This would lead to a strict enforcement of height restrictions.
Source: content.magicbricks.com

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