BIAAPA master plan challenged in HC

BIAAPA master plan challenged in HC

Srikanth Hunasavadi. Bangalore
A city advocate on Tuesday filed an interlocutory application in the Karnataka High Court challenging the Bengaluru International Airport Area Planning Authority (BIAAPA) master plan 2021.
GR Mohan, who had earlier filed a public interest litigation challenging the closure of the HAL airport and opening of BIAL, filed a fresh interlocutory application which is likely to come up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench headed by Chief Justice PD Dinakaran. The other petitions challenging the collection of user development fee (UDF) for domestic passengers at BIAL and the opening of the BIAL airport will also come up for hearing.
Mohan stated in his application that under Clause 8 of the civil aviation policy on infrastructure, no housing, commercial and industrial activities are allowed around a greenfield airport.
But under the BIAAPA master plan 2021, the government has granted permission to various types of construction on 14,627.63 hectares of land, which is contrary to the rule of law.
The BIAL airport has been set up with the sole purpose of having an aerodrome outside the city limits. But the new construction work will create another traffic gridlock as had happened around the HAL airport when the airport was functioning there.
The Airports Authority of India report says that the BIAL was obligated to provide facilities as per the IATA standards. As per these standards, a maximum of 12% of the total passenger area can be utilised as commercial area.
But in BIAL, 30% of the terminal space had been utilised for commercial activities, reducing the capacity of the terminal, the application said and added that as per the concession agreement dated July 5, 2004, BIAL was supposed to build a terminal of 71,500 square metres to accommodate 2,733 passengers. But it has built a terminal spread across only 71,310 square metres out of which the basement alone occupies about 18,665 square metres. The basement is neither being used nor is usable by passengers. Considering these aspects, the court needs to direct the Centre to reopen the HAL airport for domestic travellers, the petition prayed.