IAF activated 1962 era Advanced Landing grounds in Arunachal

[Hindustani78]

A view of Mechuka bridge | Photo Credit: Rahul Karmakar

GUWAHATI, May 15, 2018 13:07 IST
Updated: May 15, 2018 13:31 IST

Mechuka, a small town in West Siang district ,with an advance landing ground (ALG) that is closest to the border with China.

Also spelt Menchuka, the Buddhist-dominated Mechuka is perched 6,200 feet above sea level in the Eastern Himalayas and at an aerial distance of 29 km from the nearest point on the India-China border.

The landing strip at Mechuka’s ALG, one of six the Defence Ministry had reconstructed, expanded and made operational by April last year, is 4,200 feet long. The Indian Air Force (IAF) controls this ALG as well as the other five – Tuting, Aalo, Pasighat, Vijaynagar and Ziro.

In November 2016, the IAF successfully landed a C-17 Globemaster, a large military cargo aircraft that normally needs a longer runway at sea level, at Mechuka.

“We want to test the waters with a smaller aircraft initially for a once-a-week flight. The frequency and size of fixed-wing aircraft can be increased depending on the response the service ,” Mr. Sona, who represents the Mechuka Assembly constituency, said.

The nine-seater flight service, to be handled by the State’s Civil Aviation department, is not part of New Delhi’s Udey Desh ka Aam Naagrik or UDAN scheme for regional connectivity.

There is a twice-a-week helicopter service between Mechuka and Naharlagun, a commercial helipad near State capital Itanagar. But this service on Mondays and Saturdays is erratic because of unpredictable weather.

Mechuka is about 190 km north west of West Siang district headquarters Aalo. The road has not been in the best of shape, but the State government claims it will benefit from the 1,559 km Trans-Arunachal Highway (from Tawang in north-west to Kanubari in south-east) and branch projects.

The difficulty in reaching Mechuka terrestrially, however, has been a boon in disguise for mountain terrain biking (MTB), Mr. Sona said.

“MTB enthusiasts from all over have certified a 700 km stretch from Mechuka to Itanagar as the best track for mountain biking. We are focusing on this and other adventure sports such as white- water rafting in a big way,” Mr. Sona said.

 

[Hindustani78]

Arunachal Pradesh on Monday found a place on the aviation map of the country as the state’s first commercial flight with chief minister Pema Khandu among 25 passengers on board landed at Pasighat Advance Landing Ground in East Siang district.

The 42-seater ATR aircraft of the Alliance Airlines touched down at Pasighat airport around 2.15 pm after 1.5-hour journey from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport in Guwahati.

“Landed safely at Pasighat airport few minutes ago flying from Guwahati on Alliance Air. Proud to be part of this historic moment. I am extremely thankful to PM @narendramodi ji and @MoCA_GoI for connecting Arunachal with airways (sic),” the CM tweeted minutes after landing at the airport.

He also shared pictures of the aircraft along with its crew on his Twitter handle.

Addressing a gathering at Pasighat, Khandu said, “It is a history in making. With this commercial flight, new vistas of economic development have opened in the region. Besides, the flight services will also open up ample opportunities for the tourism industry.”

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, will operate flight services on the Calcutta-Guwahati-Pasighat route thrice a week — on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Arunachal has enormous potential for generating hydro-power and producing a wide range of horticultural and agricultural products, but communication has always been a bottleneck in the state, Khandu said.

“Now, with the launch of the commercial flight, tourists from other states and foreign countries will be able to visit the picturesque locales of the state,” he said.

Expressing hope that the new airport would also open avenues for economic development, the CM said if the decks were cleared for cargo aircraft in the near future, the indigenous products of the state could also be sold to other parts of the country.

Khandu also said that another airport at Tezu in Lohit district will be made operational shortly.

“Besides, Zoom Airlines is scheduled to introduce its services in the state soon,” he added.

Arunachal Pradesh has about 120 helipads and 10 advanced landing grounds, built for defence as well as civil purposes.

 

[Hindustani78]

State’s first flight lands at Pasighat Airport

A wartime airstrip laid 66 years ago helped Arunachal Pradesh create history on Monday by becoming the last of the eight northeastern States to be on India’s commercial flight service map.

Pasighat Airport, too, made it to the record books — as India’s easternmost airport with civilian operations — when an Alliance Air flight touched down at 2.30 p.m. from Kolkata via Guwahati carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and other passengers.

Pasighat, about 570 km northeast of Guwahati, is the headquarters of East Siang district and the State’s oldest city. The airport is roughly on 95.33°E Longitude while Mohanbarie Airport near Dibrugarh in adjoining Assam, hitherto the easternmost civilian airport, is on 94.91°E longitude.

“Today’s a historic day, ending our long wait for fixed-wing flights. This flight service also underlines the focus of our government on providing air and road connectivity to the remotest parts of Arunachal Pradesh,” Mr. Khandu said, after alighting from the 48-seater ATR-42 aircraft.

The Alliance Air flight took off a couple of hours later for Kolkata. Officials of Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, said the near-full flight holds promise for the thrice-a-week service on the Kolkata-Guwahati-Pasighat circuit introduced under UDAN, the regional air connectivity scheme.

Built in 1952

Pasighat Airport, one of six operational advance landing grounds (ALGs) in Arunachal Pradesh primarily for military use, was laid in 1952 but was virtually abandoned after the China-India war in 1962 until the Indian Air Force took it over in 2010. The airport was inaugurated in August 2016 with the landing of a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet. A civilian terminal was built in 2017 and a test landing of Alliance Air’s commercial flight was carried out in April this year.

Arunachal Pradesh is working on a bigger airport at Hollongi near Itanagar. The project is yet to take off because of land acquisition issues.

On April 27, the UDAN scheme connected Meghalaya’s Umroi Airport near State capital Shillong via an 18-seater Air Deccan flight. Umroi, though, had erratic commercial flight service more than a decade ago.

Air connectivity for Sikkim, too, was opened on March 10 this year when a 70-seater SpiceJet flight from Kolkata touched down at Pakyong Airport near Gangtok.

Assam is the best air-connected State in the northeast with Guwahati being the communication hub. The other civilian airports with commercial flight service are at Dibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat, north Lakhimpur and Tezpur.

The busiest airports after Guwahati in the northeast are Imphal and Agartala, followed by Lengpui near Mizoram’s capital Aizawl, and Nagaland’s commercial hub of Dimapur.

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The 70-seat aircraft will have a range of 1,350 nm (2,500 km), and require a take-off field length and landing field length of 900m (2,950 ft). The aircraft would have a length of 28.6m and a wing-span of 29.4m. The aircraft would have a service ceiling of 30,000 ft, a cruising speed of 300kt, and the noise level would meet Stage 4 criteria.

The cabin, which would be able to seat four abreast, would have a width of 3.01m and height of 3.35m. The cargo hold would have a volume of 25m³ (880 ft³).

NAL is considering a composite airframe. The aircraft will be powered by two "next-generation turboprop engine". It would have an indigenous fly-by-wire control system, open distributed modular avionics, automatic dependence surveillance - broadcast navigation capabilities, and advanced displays.

The ATR 72MP is a maritime patrol, C3I (Command, Control, Communication & Intelligence), ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) and SAR (Search & Rescue) aircraft.

 

[Hindustani78]

An Indian Army soldier keeps up vigil in the line of control in India-China international border in Bumla at an altitude of 15,700 feet above sea level in Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday, October 21, 2012. | Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar


After the 1962 India-China war, the Army had acquired huge tracks of land to set up its bases, bunkers, barracks, construct roads, build bridges and other installations.
More than 56 years after India’s war, villagers of Arunachal Pradesh have received nearly ₹38 crore as compensation for the land acquired by the Indian Army to set up its bases, bunkers and barracks.

At a special function held here, Union Minister of State, Chief Minister distributed the cheques to the villagers of West Kameng district on Friday.

“A total of ₹37.73 crore has been given to the villagers. Those were community land. So the huge amount they received will be distributed amongst the villagers,”Union Minister of State told PTI.

Among those who received the cheques who received ₹6.31 crore, while another got ₹6.21 crore and one more received ₹5.98 crore.

After the 1962 India-China war, the Army had acquired huge tracks of land to set up its bases, bunkers, barracks, construct roads, build bridges and other installations.

However, no compensation was given to the land owners till last year.

Union Minister of State who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, had persuaded with the Defence Ministry and got the compensation amounts sanctioned.

“Lands acquired by the Army were done in national interest, but no government has bothered to pay the compensation to the villagers since the 1960s. I am thankful for clearing it finally. Total cheques of ₹37.73 crore were handed over,”.

In April 2017, ₹54 crore was distributed among 152 families of three villages of West Kameng district. In September that year, another instalment of ₹158 crore was distributed among the villagers for the private land taken over by the Indian Army.

In February 2018, ₹40.80 crore was handed over to 31 families in Tawang district.

The pending cases of land acquisition related to the districts of Tawang, West Kameng, Upper Subansiri, Dibang Valley and West Siang in Arunachal Pradesh.