Taxi union moves court over airport parking

The Mumbai Airport Taxi Rickshaw Union has approached an Andheri court to complain about an alleged violation of the Aviation Safety Act and security norms in an issue related to the allocation of parking space at Mumbai’s domestic airport.

In the complaint, the union’s members said that on October 18, they were informed that they need to leave their current parking space at the domestic airport, located in Santa Cruz (east), as the place is going to be used for the Metro-3 project. Following this, the union asked for another spot and airport operators assured them of a new place. But that new place is allegedly only 10 metres from the terminal 1A building, and the union now fears that due to aviation safety norms, security agencies won’t allow them to operate from there, since rules say that there should be a mandatory distance of 100 metres.

The union has now approached the court asking to it direct the police to register a case against MIAL managing director, GV Sanjay Reddy, MIAL CEO Rajiv Jain, the regional executive director of the Airports Authority of India, K. Hemlatha, and other vigilance staff of MIAL for allegedly violating security norms.

Kanhaiya Singh, president, Mumbai Airport Taxi Rickshaw Union, said, “I have filed an application in Andheri court number 66, asking the court to direct the police to register an FIR against the operators of Mumbai airport for violating the security norms of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.” He added that the court application had to be filed after the police failed to take action despite being notified about the issue.

Commenting on the allegations, a top official from MIAL said, “We are not violating any Bureau of civil Aviation Security’s rules. We have been following all the rules and the union is making false allegations.”