Delhi’s airport city hit by security row
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A development of luxury hotels next to New Delhi’s revamped US$3 billion international airport has been hit by fears its close proximity to a runway makes it a security risk, Reuters reported.Delhi police have called for a security review at what has been dubbed “Aerocity”, a project run in partnership between the government and a private consortium.The location of the 45-acre site just 200 metres from one of the runways at India’s largest airport makes it a potential launch pad for militant attacks, police have said.Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which contains a consortium led by the Indian firm GMR Infrastructure Limited , says it had received all necessary clearances beforehand to proceed with developing the land. GMR also disputes that the development is a security risk.In a letter to Delhi Police, DIAL security has claimed to have approval for its master plan, including commercial development, by the civil aviation ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), approval for the hospitality sector master plan by AAI, clearance of master plan by the Delhi Urban Arts Commission and an environment clearance from the environment and forests ministry, Times of India reported.”They are very close to the runway,” Deepak Mishra, Special Commissioner of Police (operations) at Delhi police, told Reuters.”They claim that they have got all kinds of clearances regarding the work,” he said, adding “security vetting should have been done”.”Every clearance was taken,” Arun Bhagat, a spokesman for GMR, told Reuters, disputing the figure given by police as to the proximity of the commercial development to the runway. “You can say it’s in the vicinity of the airport but it’s not bang there,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, we know that we’ve complied with everything that was needed to be done.”
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