Uttarakhand: Preparations to hand over the operation of Pithoragarh airport to the Air Force, a high level meeting may be held soon

The exercise is going on to hand over the Nainisaini airport of Pithoragarh, the frontier district, to the Indian Air Force. On Sunday, Chief Secretary Dr. SS Sandhu also inspected the airport. His oversight is also being seen as giving the responsibility of operating the airport to the Air Force. A high-level meeting may be held at the government level in this regard soon.

Pithoragarh being a frontier district, it is adjacent to the border of Nepal. The Nainisaini airport present here is strategically important. This airport is used by the Air Force along with passenger flights. A few days ago, the top officer of the Indian Air Force also inspected the airport. According to sources, the Air Force has also agreed to operate the Naini Saini airport. On the other hand, District Magistrate Pithoragarh, Ashish Chauhan, when contacted, said that nothing can be done about it yet.

Marginal people will also get benefit
On behalf of the Indian Air Force, the operation and maintenance of the airport will be the responsibility of the Indian Air Force. The people of the marginal will also get the benefit of this. Flights will be regular. Being an airport of strategic importance, the airstrip will also be expanded in future. After this big planes will also be able to fly big.

Airstrip built in 1991, expanded in 2015
The airstrip at Nainisaini was completed in the year 1991. The runway was for commercial flights. On this, the runway 1600 meters long and 60 meters wide was made with 65 crores. The trial landing of the nine-seater aircraft was done in November 2015. Tried to start regular flight from 26 January 2016 but due to all the shortcomings, the flight could not start. In the year 2018, DGCA gave the green signal after inspection and security arrangements including air traffic control, fire brigade were strengthened and ticket booking counter was set up in the terminal building. The first commercial flight started on 17 January 2019.

Flights stopped from the year 2020
After regular flight from Nainisaini airport to Dehradun and Pantnagar, direct air service to Hindon in Ghaziabad also started on 11th October 2019. The plane has not landed for the general public again in this runway after the plane skidded off the runway in March 2020.

So far the government has not received any proposal to hand over the Nainisaini airport to the Air Force.
Dilip Jawalkar, Secretary Civil Aviation