The Delhi High Court was today told by the operator of the IGI airport here that there are 365 obstacles around the aviation hub that may pose a threat to aircraft safety.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) which runs the airport, and the local authorities to give a list of the obstacles, their nature and the action taken to remove them.
The court asked the aviation regulator DGCA how it granted permission for a runway at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport when there were obstacles around it.
It also made the Delhi government a party as the District Collector was the authority who would ensure demolition of the obstacles on receipt of information on it from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The observations and direction from the bench came on a PIL by Kerala-based lawyer Yashwanth Shenoy who said the Aerocity, which has several high rise hotels, near the international airport was major threat to security and safety of the aircraft flying over it.
He said it was easy for any terrorist to bring down a plane from these hotels as they do not have bullet-proof windows, a requirement for being allowed to come up there, neither sufficient security personnel at these establishments.
He said the hotels at the Aerocity have not used bullet-proof windows, saying these were not financially viable for them.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation, in its affidavit, has said that the hotels at Aerocity were required to have bullet-proof windows. It has also said that these hotels have their own security mechanism to prevent any untoward incident.
Apart from the issue of obstacles around the airport, Shenoy in his plea has also raised the issue of crew fatigue which according to him affect flight safety.
Shenoy recalled what set him off on this path was the 2010 Mangalore air crash. On May 22 that year, an Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore overshot the runway on landing after which it caught fire, the plea has said. Of the 160 passengers and six crew members on board, only eight had survived.
He has claimed that the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Central lndustrial Security Force and Delhi Police have not taken airport security seriously and inspite of non- compliance of the conditions imposed on buildings, hotels around the airport, these establishments have been operating.
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