AOT faces another complaint on Suvarnabhumi Airport expansion
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The Stop Global Warming Association (SGWA) lodged another complaint against the Airports of Thailand (AOT) with the Central Administrative Court.
This is the third complaint against the company’s plan to expand Suvarnahbumi Airport. SGWA also represented two groups of residents living near the airport in lodging the first two complaints.
SGWA president Srisuwan Janya has accused the AoT of never seriously helping the affected people.
“The environmental impact assessment for the airport, which was revised in 2005, has required that the number of passengers not exceed 45 million in a year,” Srisuwan said.
AOT expected the airport to accommodate 52.2 million passengers this year.
This is the third complaint brought to the court by SGWA over adverse impacts from the Suvarnabhumi Airport. As many as 406 people living North and South of the airport have assigned SGWA to represent them in the third complaint.
Concerns among the affected people are growing as the AOT is planning to upgrade the capacity for the Suvarnabhumi Airport, which will very likely worsen noise pollution and hurt local neighbourhoods more.
According to Srisuwan, the 406 complainants have demanded that AOT limit the number of passengers to no more than 45 million annually, install many more devices to monitor the level of noise, air pollution and vibration, and award Bt100,000 compensation to each of them. Srisuwan said if AOT failed to limit the number of passengers, it should be fined at the amount equivalent to 10 times the fees it has received from airlines.
Areeya Pormahathammakij, a representative of people in the NEF (Noise Exposure Forecast) 30-40 zone, said Chadchart promised to urgently compensate the affected people during his informal visit to their neighbourhood on December 23.
“He has promised to meet us after the New Year holidays,” she said.
She expected the meeting to focus on the purchases of affected houses. She said the Cabinet in fact passed a resolution since 2007 that each house in the NEF 30 – 50 zone would be bought at between Bt5million and Bt5.5million.
"But the implementation of this measure is so slow,” she said.
Areeya is now pinning a hope on Chadchart’s promise.
“He suggests that he will immediately ask the Cabinet to approve results from his meetings with the affected people if they are satisfactory,” she said.
Pollution Control Department’s director general Wichien Jungrungruang said his department was gathering information on the airport’s ongoing impacts on local neighbourhoods.
“This information will be used for comparison when the airport expands its capacity,” he said.
