Mouparna Bandyopadhyay
Kolkata, May 31 Development runs deep—but devotion runs deeper. So an ancient mosque on a tiny patch of 1,200 square feet of land right next to a runway has forced a redrawing of the entire Rs 2,000-crore map to upgrade Kolkata airport.
An extra 25,000 square metres has to be acquired, crores have to be spent on building a detour and several high-rise buildings have to be compensated because they have to knock off their top floors in line with the new plan.
The project, cleared yesterday by the Public Investment Board under the ministry of Finance is all set to go to the Cabinet—after a very public spat between Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and the Planning Commission over delays—and envisages extension of the second runway at the Kolkata airport.
The Kolkata airport has two runways: the main runway, 3,627m, that carries bulk of the air traffic, and a shorter one, 2,399 m, which is inadequate to service large aircraft, and so needs to be extended by another 440 m to the north.
But this is exactly where the 117-year old Bankra mosque — where on an average 30 people offer prayers each day under tight security — lies, less than 100 feet from the north end of the shorter runway, Also, the walls of the mosque cannot withstand vibrations caused by aircraft landing or taking off.
“We have tried to negotiate with the masjid committee numerous times. We have also tried to give them land outside the port and offered to create a replica of the masjid elsewhere but to no avail,” says SPS Bakshi, Director (Projects), Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Result: the Airports Authority of India has decided to extend the runway towards the southern side.
“This means we have to lease out more than 25,000 square metres of land to the state government for the diversion,” says another official of he AAI. The AAI will spend Rs 2 crore and the state government will provide Rs 3 crore. Also, an existing road, running from Kaikhali to Narayanpur (Rajarhat) will need to be diverted.
Then there is the issue of a new taxiway that needs to be constructed joining the northern end of both the runways. The taxiway needs to be at least 30 m wide to allow for wingspan of aircraft like A-380. As per the blueprint, the taxiway will intersect with the barb-wired path leading to the mosque. This poses a security threat and to circumvent it, a new path leading to the mosque has to be constructed. This, in all probability, will be a subway and will mean an extra Rs 20 crore, say officials.
“The authorities are in constant dialogue with the members of the masjid committee to bring out a viable solution to the problem. The extension of the runway towards the south will mean diverting the Kaikhali road and paying compensation to the building owners whose buildings will now come under height restriction. AAI is already conducting a survey to mark the buildings,” said Deepankar Ghosh, leader of the AAI employees union.
Says Abid Ali, a senior influential member of the committee that runs the mosque, “Thirty years ago the civil aviation department of India had evicted us from our land and relocated us at Bankra on the understanding that the mosque will never be demolished. We cannot let the mosque be destroyed.”
Amitava Nandi, CPM Member of Parliament, Dum Dum, passes the buck to the Centre. “The mosque is on AAI’s land and the Centre should speak to the Imam in New Delhi to shift the structure to a different area. As of now the Centre is not taking any initiative about this. What can the state do?” he asks.
That’s not all. Aviation regulations have height restrictions for buildings within 10 km of the runway. The extension of the runway to the south to keep the mosque intact means that multi-storeyed buildings that were permitted in the adjacent Rajarhat area, will now need to lose some of their top floors. “This will require us to pay compensation amounting to crores, we are working this out,” said a senior AAI official. A mapping of the area is being done to identify which structures have to be trimmed accordingly.
In fact, this week, the DCL Housing Development Company is the first one to receive a notice to construct Ground plus 17 and not Ground plus 19 floors it had got clearance for. A detailed survey is under way to identify such houses that would have to conform to the height restrictions.
“We will be extending one runway to 12,000 feet and the other one to 10,500 feet without touching the mosque. It is wrong to say that top floors of some buildings will have to go for the 10,500 feet runway expansion, no such thing will happen.
However, we are still negotiating to have the mosque relocated elsewhere and we will bear the cost of relocation as we usually do in case of shifting of religious structures. We had also taken up the issue with the West Bengal CM a couple of months back but then he had said that his hands were full so the issue could be addressed at a later stage. So we have not really lost hope on the issue”, said a senior official from AAI.
Source: http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/latest-news/kolkata-airport-map-redrawn-land-to-be-acquired-highrises-trimmed-to-save-mosque/317195/
Posted: Jun 01, 2008 at 0154 hrs IST
Kolkata, May 31 Development runs deep—but devotion runs deeper. So an ancient mosque on a tiny patch of 1,200 square feet of land right next to a runway has forced a redrawing of the entire Rs 2,000-crore map to upgrade Kolkata airport.
An extra 25,000 square metres has to be acquired, crores have to be spent on building a detour and several high-rise buildings have to be compensated because they have to knock off their top floors in line with the new plan.
The project, cleared yesterday by the Public Investment Board under the ministry of Finance is all set to go to the Cabinet—after a very public spat between Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and the Planning Commission over delays—and envisages extension of the second runway at the Kolkata airport.
The Kolkata airport has two runways: the main runway, 3,627m, that carries bulk of the air traffic, and a shorter one, 2,399 m, which is inadequate to service large aircraft, and so needs to be extended by another 440 m to the north.
But this is exactly where the 117-year old Bankra mosque — where on an average 30 people offer prayers each day under tight security — lies, less than 100 feet from the north end of the shorter runway, Also, the walls of the mosque cannot withstand vibrations caused by aircraft landing or taking off.
“We have tried to negotiate with the masjid committee numerous times. We have also tried to give them land outside the port and offered to create a replica of the masjid elsewhere but to no avail,” says SPS Bakshi, Director (Projects), Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Result: the Airports Authority of India has decided to extend the runway towards the southern side.
“This means we have to lease out more than 25,000 square metres of land to the state government for the diversion,” says another official of he AAI. The AAI will spend Rs 2 crore and the state government will provide Rs 3 crore. Also, an existing road, running from Kaikhali to Narayanpur (Rajarhat) will need to be diverted.
Then there is the issue of a new taxiway that needs to be constructed joining the northern end of both the runways. The taxiway needs to be at least 30 m wide to allow for wingspan of aircraft like A-380. As per the blueprint, the taxiway will intersect with the barb-wired path leading to the mosque. This poses a security threat and to circumvent it, a new path leading to the mosque has to be constructed. This, in all probability, will be a subway and will mean an extra Rs 20 crore, say officials.
“The authorities are in constant dialogue with the members of the masjid committee to bring out a viable solution to the problem. The extension of the runway towards the south will mean diverting the Kaikhali road and paying compensation to the building owners whose buildings will now come under height restriction. AAI is already conducting a survey to mark the buildings,” said Deepankar Ghosh, leader of the AAI employees union.
Says Abid Ali, a senior influential member of the committee that runs the mosque, “Thirty years ago the civil aviation department of India had evicted us from our land and relocated us at Bankra on the understanding that the mosque will never be demolished. We cannot let the mosque be destroyed.”
Amitava Nandi, CPM Member of Parliament, Dum Dum, passes the buck to the Centre. “The mosque is on AAI’s land and the Centre should speak to the Imam in New Delhi to shift the structure to a different area. As of now the Centre is not taking any initiative about this. What can the state do?” he asks.
That’s not all. Aviation regulations have height restrictions for buildings within 10 km of the runway. The extension of the runway to the south to keep the mosque intact means that multi-storeyed buildings that were permitted in the adjacent Rajarhat area, will now need to lose some of their top floors. “This will require us to pay compensation amounting to crores, we are working this out,” said a senior AAI official. A mapping of the area is being done to identify which structures have to be trimmed accordingly.
In fact, this week, the DCL Housing Development Company is the first one to receive a notice to construct Ground plus 17 and not Ground plus 19 floors it had got clearance for. A detailed survey is under way to identify such houses that would have to conform to the height restrictions.
“We will be extending one runway to 12,000 feet and the other one to 10,500 feet without touching the mosque. It is wrong to say that top floors of some buildings will have to go for the 10,500 feet runway expansion, no such thing will happen.
However, we are still negotiating to have the mosque relocated elsewhere and we will bear the cost of relocation as we usually do in case of shifting of religious structures. We had also taken up the issue with the West Bengal CM a couple of months back but then he had said that his hands were full so the issue could be addressed at a later stage. So we have not really lost hope on the issue”, said a senior official from AAI.
Source: http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/latest-news/kolkata-airport-map-redrawn-land-to-be-acquired-highrises-trimmed-to-save-mosque/317195/
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