Nov 28, 2011 11:30 AM
6834 Views
When someone comes from abroad and lands in Mumbai, first impression one gets is of the adjoining slums and filthy surroundings of the Mumbai airport. The movement you step out of the airport there is total chaos no system in place whatsoever. The air traffic is increasing day by day and there is no room for expansion of this airport due to the encroachment of slums on all its sides. The airport is located in the middle of the city so one will be stuck in traffic for hours before reaching the airport. The drainage water flowing , garbage dumped near the airport raises a stink. Due to the metro work going on it is very dificult to travel to and fro from the airport as one gets stuck in huge slow moving traffic jams for hours. It is really shameful that the commercial capital of the city has a very low standard international airport.
The authorities, unions , government keep playing the blame game and get involved in vote bank politics as they never intend to remove the slums which are posing a huge security threat to the airport, . They are also causing a lot of inconvenience to some of the pilots as there are incidences of bird hit and other issues. A river is flowing beneath the runway which is sometimes flooded due to heavy rains and even the main runway is damaged due to the potholes created on it. Overall there is a huge risk in operating this airport unless the conditions are improved. There are also reports on shortage of manpower in ATC team which is also a huge concern .
The Airport authority of India must take up the matter with the Government of India and Civil aviation ministry to resolve these issues and take firm steps immediately to improve the situation.At the end of the day no one is interested in matters of public importance.
