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Saturday, 18 July 2015

State puts Mahalaxmi heliport on back-burner

Mumbai: Bowing to pressure from locals and the Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra government has put on hold its plan to build a heliport at Mahalakshmi Racecourse with a night landing facility. At present, the city has no night-landing facility even for the chief minister and other dignitaries or VIPs. In case of emergency, the helicopters are either landed at the main airport or Navy airport at Colaba after prior permission has been taken.

Confirming this development, an official from the general administration department said, “We have put the plan on hold. The previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government was keen on having the helipad in the island city. It was also decided that a heliport could be useful during security threats to the city like terror attacks. A survey was also conducted on the site to check feasibility.”
At present, the chief minister’s helicopter lands at Raj Bhavan, but it has no night-landing facility, the official added. Locals had opposed the project due to the possible rise in noise pollution and VIP movement, which might have caused traffic jams.
Read news in full 10/07/15 Shruti Ganapatye/Asian Age

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