Rise of suburbs a bane for airport

V Ayyappan TNN

Dec 9, 2008

Chennai: The rapid growth of the suburbs is not only constricting the growth of the Chennai airport but also posing a security risk to it. Way back in the seventies, the airport functioned out of a small building at Meenambakkam, a place far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city 20 km away. Just 10 flights landed everyday and they faced no trouble because the area around the airport was hardly inhabited not to mention constructions. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) came across just a handful of applications for height clearance in those days. But the rapid growth of suburbs has changed the scene altogether. Now, several hundred applications are piled up at the AAI office. “If the location of the proposed building is along the air corridor, permission is granted for construction only up to a stipulated height,” a senior AAI official said. “The rules were the same in the 70s, but we never had so many applications for no-objection certificates,” he added. Even AAI officials who have worked in Chennai in the last three decades never expected this kind of growth. “There is a sea change. The airport used to be merely a passenger arrival and departure facility when it was functioning out of the old building in Meenambakkam in the 70s. Now, it is much more than that,” said airport director K Natarajan, who joined service in Chennai in the 70s. Now, AAI is wary of constructions posing danger to aircraft and also the airport. Several buildings have come up in Guindy, Pazhavanthangal, St Thomas Mount, Manapakkam, Porur, Pallavaram which lie in the air corridor. The recently-built flyover in front of the airport also poses a security risk because it provides a good line of sight of the operational area — the runway and the aircraft parking bays. Police personnel have been posted on the flyover to prevent motorists from stopping their vehicles and taking a look at the airport. Still, the flyover is proving to be a headache for agencies handling security at the airport. Meanwhile, airport authorities were shocked to find a chimney of a crematorium protruding into the air corridor of the secondary runway. AAI has restricted the use of secondary runway after a pilot complained about the chimney in the flight path. The Alandur municipality, which built the crematorium, was not warned by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Agency that its location fell in the flight path.