Airport metro may well shut down Jakkur flying school

Runway and metro line near Jakkur

The Government Flying Training School (GFTS) runway in Jakkur could get virtually dysfunctional if the airport metro line goes elevated on this stretch. Faced with this imminent threat, students and flight instructors staged a symbolic dharna outside the school here on Saturday.

Built without the mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the GFTS, the elevated airport road tollway had already reduced the runway’s effective length by 40% to 413 metres. The usable runway length originally was
854 metres.

The elevated metro line would make 70% of the runway inoperable, GFTS sources told DH. This would imply only about 240m available for aircraft take-off and landing, an impossible task for trainee pilots.

At a distance of 500m outside the runway strip, the Aircraft Act, 1934, permits constructions/structures only up to a height of 10m. But the elevated road has come up at a distance of only 55m from the strip. Its height of 17m (12m elevated structure and 5m vehicular height) violates the 10m restriction.

The proposed airport metro line would be even closer to the runway, at a distance of 35m. Its height is estimated at 14m. “This effectively shuts down the runway and the flying school, besides all the private flight training institutes within the campus.”

Once the elevated road was commissioned, the restricted height meant the flying school could not operate five of its two-seater aircraft. This included two Pushpaks, two Cessna 152s and one Aeronca. “The school had to rely on its Cessna 172, carrying fuel that would last only an hour,” an official explained.

Besides, two new four-seater aircraft, a twin-engine Tesnam 2006 and Tesnam 2010 acquired by GFTS for a combined investment of
Rs 5.6 crore have been rendered dysfunctional for the past six months.

The GFTS had requested the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to either take the line underground or at grade along this stretch. However, the corporation has stuck to its alignment, shifting only the Jakkur station location away from the school.

Beyond the height issue, the metro line will also require the demolition of half of the famed Maharaja hangar. This facility was part of the GFTS when it was commissioned in 1949.

In 2010, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had acquired 9,814 sqm for the airport road upgrade that featured the elevated stretch. Encroachment on its northern boundary has already reduced the flying school’s area from 300 to 214 acres as of today.