Follow Us
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 17
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will reopen the strategically vital airstrip at Vijaynagar, the eastern-most tip of India. It has upgraded landing facilities to make it fully operational, enabling landing of transport and special operations planes like C-130- J and C-17.
This comes after the IAF made all six airfields, called advanced landing grounds (ALGs), in Arunachal Pradesh operational in the past few years. The one in Vijaynagar will be reopened when an An-32 transport plane of the IAF lands there on Wednesday. The IAF’s Eastern Command chief, Air Marshall RD Mathur, and Army Eastern Command Chief, Lt Gen Anil Chauhan, will be onboard the plane, sources told The Tribune.
India shares a 1,100-km disputed boundary with China in the far-eastern state. The six ALGs are at Pasighat, Mechuka, Walong, Tuting, Ziro and Along, besides the helicopter landing ground at Tawang. Each of these ALGs is in deep Himalayan valleys and are vital for moving troops and equipment of the Army’s newly set-up Mountain Strike Corps.
In October, the Corps will conduct its second major exercise since it was raised in 2013. It did one exercise in July-August 2017 in eastern Ladakh.
In April 2018, the IAF while conducting exercise “Gagan-Shakti” had operationalised these six ALGs for conducting inter-valley troop transfers (IVTT), special heliborne operations, air landed operations and special operations.
The lead fighter jet, Sukhoi 30-MKI, also operated from most of the ALGs.
Vijaynagar in Arunachal is surrounded by Myanmar on three sides and the nearest road-head is at Miao, 180 km away. For locals, it is a four-day trek. An old airstrip exists in the Valley. It is not in use since 2016.
The disuse stems from the logistical nightmare, as all repair material, including road rollers, petrol, diesel and bitumen, has to be ferried on helicopters.
1
4
8