Mobile towers, water tanks raise worry on city flight path

Bhubaneswar: Authorities of Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) have claimed that mobile towers and overhead water tanks in Baramunda area here were built within the obstacle limitation surface (OLS), flouting civil aviation height norms and raising serious safety concerns.Airport authorities wrote to the housing and urban development and transport departments, urging them to reduce the height of the structures that fell within the funnel area and posed risks to aircraft operations. It also marked a copy to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) since its commissioner chairs the airport environment management committee (AEMC).
BPIA director Prasanna Pradhan in his letter to housing and urban development secretary Usha Padhee said, "During a recent survey of the airport surrounding area conducted by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), it was observed that certain structures — building/tower/trees/poles/chimney/tank — were penetrating into the OLS. This was in contravention of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Height Restriction for Safeguarding of Aircraft Operations) Rules, 2015. In this regard, your intervention is requested to reduce the height of the mentioned structures."Airport sources said multiple mobile towers have come up on the roof of houses in Baramunda colony, which were 4-5 metres above the permissible height in the funnel area. In addition, the height of an overhead water tank was 7 m higher than the permissible height. "The structures were erected without obtaining a no-objection certificate. BPIA was not kept in the loop before the local authorities accorded permission for construction. We gave exhaustive details of the structures and their coordinates," Pradhan added.Officials said getting the airport's NOC was mandatory to get approval from BMC for construction. But in the case of these structures, no NOC was obtained.Pradhan further said the airport was not empowered to serve notice and order demolition as per existing rules, and it was the mandate of BMC, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), and, in some cases, the general administration department. "There should not be any infringement on the approach light and obstacle-free zone (OFZ) of the airport," an airport official said.BMC officials said after cutting the coconut trees, enforcement was taken up to cut other tall trees along the airport's approach path. "We will take steps to remove more obstructions," said BMC commissioner Chanchal Rana.