Mumbai woes: Expensive real estate is scaring away air traffic control officials from the city

The lack of air traffic safety could be a price the city of Mumbai is paying for its skyrocketing real estate prices, if a report by The Times of India  is anything to go by. According to the report, the prohibitive prices of houses near the Mumbai airport have been dissuading air traffic control personnel from taking up assignments in the city. [caption id=“attachment_162652” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Representative photo. Image courtesy-Reuters[/caption] The report quotes an official from the Airports Authority of India as saying that out of thirty-two air traffic control officers who were transferred to Mumbai, only 13 joined, while the rest got their transfers cancelled. A large number of the officers who are allotted this responsibility are said to be persons who are transferred to the city from other places. The lack of enough air traffic controllers is a particular cause of worry for the megapolis, which has the second busiest airport in the country after Delhi. The effect of less hands on board seems to be making itself apparent. According to a report in the Economic Times in April, there were 21 ‘reportable incidents’ involving accidents just about averted in four months in 2015. In the entire year of 2014, the corresponding figure was 19 incidents. Air traffic controllers are responsible for streamlining airplane traffic and for giving information which is useful for navigating the plane. This means that an inadequate number of such officers greatly increases the risk of flight-related accidents. A report by a real estate research firm named Liases Foras indicated recently that in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), prices of houses have risen by 10 percent year-on-year in the city, as a Firstpost report noted in February. The price rise has taken place even as the number of unsold houses has increased. The average weighted cost of a flat in Mumbai is said to be as much as Rs 3.03 crore.