Bhavesh Patni had just sat down with his family to enjoy a meal of eggplant and potato curry when an Air India plane took off from the runway behind his home, flew overhead, and tragically crashed into the campus of a medical college visible from his building.
As Patni climbed to his rooftop to witness the flames engulfing the disaster that ultimately claimed 241 lives on the plane and at least 34 on the ground in Ahmedabad, he shuddered at how close his family had been to the nightmare unfolding below.
In Ahmedabad, as in many Indian cities with populations totaling 1.4 billion, there is little separation between increasingly busy airports and the densely populated neighborhoods surrounding them. This proximity places residents at significant risk during takeoffs and landings, the phases when most aviation accidents occur.
This situation highlights a pressing challenge for India. The country’s growing wealth has fueled greater mobility, doubling passenger air traffic and the number of operational airports over the past decade. However, aviation expansion ambitions have overlapped with already strained urban infrastructure amid rapid city growth.
“We only survived by the grace of God,” said Patni, a cargo handler at Ahmedabad airport, days after the recent crash. Rescue teams continued to recover human remains from the debris while cranes worked to detach the plane’s tail from the medical college roof.
Worldwide, major airports are generally located farther from city centers, partly because land is cheaper and expansion easier, and partly to reduce health risks from noise and air pollution as well as potential dangers from air accidents.
Yet, airports in India’s largest cities rank among the world’s most encroached upon, according to a 2022 Belgian study. Mumbai’s airport topped the list, with Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Delhi airports also ranking within the top 25 for proximity to urban development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has strongly promoted expanding air connectivity across India. The country has doubled its number of international and domestic airports to over 150 in the last decade and plans to increase that number to 350 in the next 20 years. With over one million flights and 175 million passengers last year, India ranks as the world’s third-largest air travel market after the United States and China.
India’s growing economy has finally provided resources to upgrade infrastructure long neglected. However, critics argue that Modi’s development model prioritizes quick results over careful planning and execution.
They point to roads and bridges collapsing soon after completion and widespread lapses in basic safety standards. India lacks sufficient airport officials with the detailed expertise necessary to ensure aviation safety, said Yeshwanth Shenoy, a public interest lawyer and longtime advocate for improved airport security.
A parliamentary report earlier this year highlighted a critical shortage of personnel in agencies responsible for enforcing air safety regulations, noting vacancy rates exceeding 50 percent in the civil aviation authority.
In Mumbai, where the international airport handles a quarter of India’s air traffic, more than 1,000 buildings violate safety regulations designed to prevent obstruction of flight paths, Shenoy stated.
City officials acknowledged before the court that hundreds of these buildings obstruct flight paths. Yet, since demolition orders began in 2016, only a few have been removed, while many more have been constructed, Shenoy added.
Regarding the Ahmedabad crash, there is no evidence of buildings obstructing the plane’s path. The aircraft reportedly failed to gain sufficient altitude after takeoff, descending continuously before crashing less than 1.5 kilometers from the runway. Bird strikes, a long-standing issue for the airport, were also ruled out.
However, it has long been clear that little buffer exists around the airport, with clusters of modest homes, shops, and hotels pressed right up against its boundaries.
“If the plane had crashed 500 meters earlier, thousands of people could have died,” said Himmatsingh Patel, former mayor of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city.
In Modi’s vision for India’s development, Ahmedabad holds a special place as a “model city.” Modi tested many of his ideas there while serving as Gujarat’s chief minister for over a decade before becoming prime minister in 2014.
Ahmedabad’s favored status continued after Modi took national office. In 2014, he shared a swing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the city’s waterfront promenade.
The city also hosts India’s largest cricket stadium, named after Modi. When former U.S. President Trump visited India in 2020, Modi brought him to a rally at that stadium attended by 100,000 people.
Ahmedabad was a very different place when its airport was built in the 1930s, located about 16 kilometers from the old city, said Patel.
Sixty-four-year-old Patel recalled family picnics near the airport to watch planes take off and land during his childhood.
The airport became international in the 1990s. The city’s population grew alongside it; today, about eight million people live there, more than twice the number from two decades ago.
A study found that a tenth of the city’s population is affected by high noise levels from air traffic. Many residents near the airport say such noise is a daily occurrence.
As airport activity increased, neighborhoods around it — home to businesses like grain markets and pharmacies — became sought-after employment hubs.
Vikram Sinh, 60, who lives in a government apartment and runs a grocery store, was able to fund medical studies for two of his children, both now practicing doctors in Canada.
“This is a golden area throughout Gujarat,” he said. “I have no desire to leave here.”
Currently, Ahmedabad airport handles over 13 million passengers annually. Its operations were transferred in 2020 to Adani Airport Holdings, part of Gautam Adani’s conglomerate and a close ally of Modi. The company signed a 50-year agreement with the government.
Adani Holdings has described the airport as “one of India’s most land-constrained airports,” yet plans to increase passenger capacity to 18 million next year and 40 million by 2040.
Patel, a member of the opposition Congress party, criticized expanding the existing airport in the heart of Ahmedabad when open land is available outside the densely populated city, calling it a failure of long-term planning.
“We do patchwork development,” he said, “not the kind that looks ahead 25 years.”
Dharmendra Shah, a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, acknowledged the scarcity of available land within the city. He said authorities would investigate the crash’s cause but expressed support for the city’s development plans.
“In my opinion,” he said, “the city’s development model is sound, including that of the airport.”
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