With its premises waterlogged and its runway flooded, all helicopter operations at the Juhu Aerodrome have come to a standstill for the past two days.
Every day, there are nearly 60-70 chopper movements at the aerodrome, of which about 50 are related to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC’s) Bombay High operations.
With the entire aerodrome water-logged, its 20 hangars cannot be accessed. But according to sources, unlike last year, some hangar owners have taken precautions to save their property and moved their choppers elsewhere (see box).
On Wednesday morning, there was approximately 3 ft water near the Airports Authority of India’s (AAI’s) office complex and the residential quarters housing 50 families. Ground-floor residents were shifted to
safe locations.
‘‘The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had taken some action to mitigate the problems of the Juhu aerodrome, but it was not good enough,’’ said AAI Regional Executive Director S R R Rao. ‘‘AAI apprehended the problem this year would be more and its position now stands vindicated.’’
A nullah passing through the low-lying aerodrome land—it connects with two other nullahs—is to blame, say sources.
With the nullah getting clogged, storm water from residential areas within the aerodrome and operational areas does not get a outlet and this results in water-logging, they allege.
This year, authorities are also peeved that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the BMC have diverted all the storm water towards the aerodrome. Thirty-nine new storm-water drain connections have allegedly been laid below the operational wall of the aerodrome that runs parallel to S V Road.
‘‘All water from areas
like Vile Parle has
accumulated in the aerodrome area, which is now being utilised as a storm-water dumping ground,’’ alleged an operator.