Vimana Nildhana Vistharana  Virodhi Samithi

Adyapady village, Mangalore Taluk, Dakshina Kannada 574 142

Tel: 0824-752081/752623

 

 

Press Release

 

                                                                                                            12 January 1998

 

High Court Stays Proposed New Mangalore Airport

 

Petitioners:                    Arthur Pereira and others

            Represented by:        Mr. C. B. Sreenivasan, Advocate

                                                Mr. Sanath Kumar Shetty, Advocate

                                                Mr. Shivaram Bhat O., Advocate

                                   

 

Respondents:                 Union of India represented by Director General                                                         of Civil Aviation and others

 

The Division Bench comprising of Mr. Justice Ashok Bhan and Mr. Justice Mohammed Anwar of the High Court of Karnataka  ordered issue of notice to the respondents in  writ petition No. 37681/1997 in which the petitioners have challenged the Government’s proposal to develop a new airport near Mangalore and granted stay on the project as an interim relief.

 

The writ petition brings to focus the decade long resistance of the people of Malavoor, Adyapady and Kolambe villages where over 200 acres of land is being acquired for the purpose. The affected communities have repeatedly represented to the various authorities that the said project is totally unjustified from various points of view,  particularly the following:

 

·        That the location is highly unsafe for the development of an airport as the same is on a very high range of hills with about 100 metres drop all around.   Given that the existing Bajpe airport has been considered one of the most dangerous in the world, the least one could have expected from the Government is that the new airport would not be located in an equally, if not more, dangerous location.  In fact, some years ago the Bajpe airport witnessed a serious accident as an Avro aircraft overran the runway and toppled over the cliff, with the passengers having a miraculous escape.

·        That the project is being developed with absolutely no adherence to the due process of the law, i.e., without conducting the mandatory Public Hearing, without  conducting an Environment and Social Impact Assessment, in violation of the land use plan of the Comprehensive Development Plan for Greater Mangalore, and fundamentally violating significant safeguards recommended by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, especially the National Building Code, and the International Civil Aviation Standards and Recommendations.

·        The project authorities have not even conducted the most basic of studies: techno-economic feasibility report for the project.

·        The development of the airport at the present location will displace over 208 families, most of whom are poor and a significant number are Dalits who have been provided Government settlements following their rescue from previous slavery and persecution.  Further,  several religious monuments and places would be destroyed including a church, two mosques, two boothasthanas, two community halls, and two graveyards.

 

Under the leadership of the Vimana Nildhana Vistharana  Virodhi Samithi, the project communities have made tens of representations to the various authorities right from the level of the District Commissioner all the way to the Civil Aviation Minister and the Director General of Civil Aviation.  But beyond some preliminary, vague, insensitive and misguding responses, none of the authorities have even addressed the key technical issues that have been raised, or for that matter appreciated the enormous and adverse social and environmental impacts the project would unnecessarily cause.

 

In such a situation, the petitioners, several of whom have been campaigning against the project in the public interest, have been constrained to seek remedy from the Judiciary so that the communities are not unnecessarily dispossessed, public resources wasted and lives of air travelers unnecessarily put at risk merely because of the callousness of the Government and the vested interests of a few.

 

 

 

 

Arthur Pereira

First Petitioner  and

for Vimana Nildhana Vistharana Virodhi Samithi

 

Bangalore address for information:

 

Environment Support Group

36, Reservoir Road

Basavanagudi

Bangalore 560 004

Tel: 6676289