Airport height clearance for new construction
Who this applies to
- Use coordinates in WGS-84, site elevation, and proposed top elevation above mean sea level. Height above ground level is not the only figure.
- A valid Colour Coded Zoning Map can allow the local planning authority to clear a structure at or below the mapped permissible top elevation, subject to the exclusions on that map.
- AAI's published guidance describes cases with no separate NOC beyond 20 km of a VFR airport or 56 km of an IFR airport, where the structure is also at or below 150 m above ground level, and CCZM cases at or below the permitted top elevation. Those tests are guidance. They are not an exemption certificate for a particular site.
What you are clearing
The height limits around aerodromes are set by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Height Restrictions for Safeguarding of Aircraft Operations) Rules, 2015 (G.S.R. 751(E), 30 September 2015), made under the Aircraft Act, 1934. The Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024 replaced that Act from 1 January 2025, so check whether the 2015 Rules, or rules made to replace them, are in force when you file.
The Airports Authority of India processes height-clearance applications through NOCAS for buildings, masts, chimneys, wind turbines and transmission structures around civil aerodromes. A separate AAI no-objection is not always required. Where a valid Colour Coded Zoning Map applies, and the structure is at or below the mapped permissible top elevation and outside any compulsory-NOC grid, the local planning authority may certify that instead. AAI's guidance puts the maximum elevation that can be cleared through the colour-coded map at 150 m; anything above that goes through NOCAS.
AAI guidance also states that no AAI no-objection is required where the structure is beyond 20 km from a VFR airport or 56 km from an IFR airport and is at or below 150 m above ground level, and where a colour-coded structure is at or below the permitted top elevation. Those statements are subject to the guidance itself and to special zones, and they are not a certificate that your site is exempt. Check the aerodrome that actually governs your coordinates, and a second aerodrome if the site falls within more than one radius.
This does not replace planning permission. The approved elevation has to be the elevation on the planning drawings, the factory drawings and, where a stack is also an emission point, the consent drawings.
This page covers civil aerodromes. A site near a defence airfield needs the defence clearance route as well, and the civil colour-coded map does not answer that question.
What it costs to get wrong
A structure built above the elevation that the map or the no-objection allows has to be reduced, or regularised if that route is open at all. This page does not state a penalty. The classic way to get this wrong is to compare a height above ground with a limit expressed above mean sea level.
The process
Survey the top, not just the floor level
Obtain surveyor-certified coordinates and site elevation, and state the proposed top elevation above mean sea level, counting rooftop plant, a lightning arrester, a chimney cap and any crane that will stand during construction.
Read the colour-coded map before you open NOCAS
If the structure is below a valid map's permissible top elevation and is not in a compulsory-NOC area, the planning authority's certification route may be the one that applies. If it is above that elevation, in a red or mandatory grid, a chimney, mast, wind turbine or transmission line that the guidance sends to NOCAS, or there is no applicable map, file through NOCAS.
Carry the approved elevation into every other drawing
The figure AAI or the planning authority accepts must be the figure on the building, factory and fire drawings. If you need to go higher later, amend the clearance before the extra height is built.
Common failure points
- Comparing height above ground with a mean-sea-level limit.
- Leaving out the chimney or the crane.
- Treating a colour-coded map as permission to build.
- Treating an approximate portal reading as the issued no-objection.
- Checking only the nearest commercial airport.
Building tall structures near an airport?
Send us coordinates, site elevation and the top elevation of the tallest element, including temporary cranes. We will tell you whether to test a colour-coded map or file through NOCAS.