The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday allowed the State government to adopt measures suggested by the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ensure that the proposed elevated metro lane will not become an obstacle for flight operations of aerodrome belonging to the Government Flying Training School at Jakkur in the city.
The court also made it clear that the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) should not continue the work till the committee, empowered to grant No Objection Certificate for construction in aerodrome area, considers a fresh the application of the BMRCL to carry out works on the elevated metro lane after the government adopts appropriate mitigation
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while disposing of a PIL petition filed Ajoy Kumar Patil, a city-based advocate.
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The work on the metro project on the western periphery of the aerodrome was stayed by the High Court in September 2020 after the petitioner alleged that the elevated structures come under restricted zone affecting flight operations.
Later, an Obstacle Limitation Surfaces survey conducted by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in April revealed that the proposed metro rail will be an obstacle to the approach funnel of the runway of the aerodrome. The DGCA, appraised of the obstacles, suggested to the State government to either reduce the height of the obstacles surfaces within the permissible limit as per Ministry of Civil Aviation (Height Restriction for Safeguarding of Aircraft Operations) Rules, 2015, or to adopt mitigation measures as suggested/recommended by the AAI by reducing the length of the runway.
The DGCA, in its letter dated May 20, 2021, had also told the State government to intimate it if the latter wanted the obstacles to be considered as per the provisions of the Aircraft (Demolition of obstructions caused by buildings and trees, etc) Rules, 1994.
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Following the DGCA’s communication, the State government had decided to adopt the mitigation suggested by the AAI to reduce the length of the runway by issuing direction to the director of the GFTS while claiming that it wants both infrastructure projects and general aviation activities at the flying school to ‘co-exist’.