A citizen who voiced a safety concern when the Metro 2 B line passed through the section of SV road adjacent to runway 8/26 of the Juhu airport filed a public interest litigation (PIL).
After its collapse in the funnel zone, work ceased on the section of the metro between the stations of Indira Nagar & Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle.
According to an MMRDA official, a great deal of time was spent during this stretch, which prevented work from being done. The pillars & viaduct project will now be finished in a year.
Installation on pier portals has started, according to DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation), the company carrying out the construction. Pier construction will lead to the start of the viaduct installation process. By December 2024, DMRC intends to complete the full 2B section in the western suburbs.
Even though the Airport Authority of India had issued a NOC for this route with an elevation of 16.76 m in 2019, work on the segment at SV Road close to Juhu airport was delayed (above mean sea level).
However, locals opposed the NOC on the premise that the Metro line is in the runway’s funnel. They said that there was a chance that an accident involving an aircraft may put locals’ safety in jeopardy.
In January 2022, the HC requested a report from Rajiv Bansal, secretary of the civil aviation ministry, on the subject of the height clearance given for the overground Metro rail 2B development in Mumbai.
The “height clearance” NOC from AAI to MMRDA for the raised metro rail line near the Juhu airport “duly handles safety factors for aircraft operations & safety concerns of communities in proximity,” the ministry stated in a report to the HC in May.
The case was finally dismissed on 22 December 2022, when the director general for civil aviation filed an affidavit claiming that the AAI had said in September that the “take-off run available” (TORA) had been “limited to 645 m after shifting the runways of 487 m as a component of the overall runway length 1132 m.”
The high court was further informed by the Government that a security assessment had been conducted out and the “effect of existing barriers on aviation industry at Juhu airport is mitigated to an adequate degree of security by adopting and executing control measures”.
