Activist opposes AAI signboard outside runway

Social activist and lawyer Godfrey Pimenta opposed a signboard that has been put up near the Juhu aerodrome declaring that the land belongs to the Airport Authority of India (AAI). While an RTI filed by Mr Pimenta a few ago revealed that the territory of the Juhu aerodrome ends where the runway of the heliport ends. Beyond the runway, neither the Juhu aerodrome nor the AAI is allowed to claim any piece of land.

While talking to The Asian Age, Mr Pimenta said that earlier this year when he saw news reports that Juhu aerodrome authorities are planning a runway over the sea, he thought of asking the authorities the boundaries and area of the heliport and so he filed the RTI (which this newspaper has an access to).

The Juhu heliport has two runways 08/26 which is 1,143 meter long and 16/34 which is 731 meter long. One of them point towards the Arabian sea. Right beyond the boundary wall that marks the end of the runway, is the Juhu beach. The opposed signboard has been put up at Juhu beach. On June 28, an official of Juhu aerodrome also wrote a letter to social activist in which the official added the Google earth image of the runway of the heliport and the boundary wall of it. As per the image also the heliport territory gets over where the runway ends, thus no one has possession of the spot on Juhu beach where the signboard has been put up.

Earlier in 2010, a plan of Juhu heliport runway extension was proposed and in the second round of planning in 2012 officials of civil aviation ministry decided that Juhu’s runway 08/26 lies in the east-west direction, and is currently 1,143 metres long, and would be extended by 877 metres to 2,020 metres by building it on stilts over the Juhu-Tara Road and into the Arabian Sea. Presently, the runway caters to a large number of helicopter operations and a few number of fixed-wing small aircraft operate from there.