Air connectivity in Arunachal Pradesh got a major boost on Sunday as decks were cleared for introduction of passenger flight services to remote towns such as Mechuka, Tuting, Ziro and Vijaynagar in various parts of the Himalayan state from Assam.
Arunachal at present has eight operational advanced landing grounds and two more ALGs, which are under survey at Dirang and Daporijo would be connected later. The civil passenger terminal buildings (PTB) at Ziro and Tuting are under construction and would be completed by the year-end. The PTB at Mechuka is also under construction while Pasighat and Tezu already have the mandatory infrastructure. Private Airlines have already  started commercial services in Pasighat and Tezu.
Over a short period of time, Arunachal has grown wings and taken to the sky in an unimaginable way.
The poor road infrastructure has been a major constraint for development and during emergencies especially health and disaster, the situation becomes acutely jarring. Since the NEFA days, it was the airforce which was the lifeline— from ferrying ration items to evacuating patients etc.
Therefore, the emergence of ALGs in remote border towns has opened up the possibility of air connectivity yet again. Apart from boosting defence preparedness these ALGs are also being viewed as a solution to the acute communication bottlenecks of the frontier state.
If the ALGs become operational for civil and commercial purposes, it will give a major boost to air connectivity and development of the land locked state. Imagine what it can do for the pristine undiscovered places from a tourism perspective.
Over time there has been a growing demand for allowing dual use of the ALGs to cater to defense as well as civilian purposes. Looking at the ground realities, there is logic in the demand. There is a need for working out an arrangement for concurrent use in peacetime of the airstrips being developed by the Defence Ministry and Airports Authority of India since these airstrips are also crucial for the needs of administration and tourism. Such a synergistic relationship would be of great use in case of evacuation of patients, for use by the NDRF and SDRF during disasters and also by law enforcement agencies.

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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