Rajnath reviews expansion of strategic airfield at Nicobar

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 6

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday reviewed the expansion project of INS Baaz, Navy’s strategic airfield in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Located at Campbell Bay in Great Nicobar Island, INS Baaz is under the joint services Andaman and Nicobar Command of the Indian Armed Forces. It overlooks the Strait of Malacca, the sea route through which Chinese ships pass. The airfield is just 145 kms from Indonesia and overlooks the ‘Six Degree Channel’ between Great Nicobar and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

India, in March last year, landed a special operations plane, C-130J, at INS Baaz. The plane can land and take-off from short runaways. The runaway at INS Baaz is being expanded to operate the maritime surveillance planes like Boeing P-8I and even drones.

INS Baaz, was opened in 2012 and smaller planes could operate from, there.

Rajnath Singh was familiarised with the terrain of the Nicobar Islands. He later visited Indira Point, the southernmost tip of the country.

The minister had arrived at Port Blair on Thursday to review the operational preparedness of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC). In his address to the officers and jawans, he talked about the border standoff with China and lauded the bravery of Indian soldiers from Galwan in Ladakh to Yangtse in Arunachal Pradesh.

He also visited the ANC’s Joint Operations Centre (JOC), which is the nerve centre for integrated planning for surveillance and conducting operations.

Besides INS Baaz, there are plans to extend the runways at Car Nicobar and Shibpur in North Andaman.

Lieutenant General Ajai Singh, Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command, accompanied the Defence Minister.

UK warship docks at Andamans

New Delhi: A UK’s warship, HMS Tamar, sailed to Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Friday as part of its permanent deployment in the Indo-Pacific. Over the next five days, the ship and its crew will undertake maritime exercises with the Indian Navy, the British High Commission said.

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