IAF opens two new landing grounds near China border

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has operationalised two more Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG) in Ziro and Along in Arunachal Pradesh, improving the connectivity to the China border.

Three ALGs were reactivated in the last six months and another four would be ready for regular air operations by September, enabling India to quickly move the troops and loads to strategically important areas in the northeast.

“The ALGs will further enhance our existing operational capabilities in the Eastern Air Command,” Commander-in-Chief Air Marshal C Hari Kumar said at Ziro on Saturday. The first ALG at Walong was reactivated in last October.

Now, these ALGs would be able to operate the IAF's most modern C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft.

Three more ALGs — Mechuka, Pasighat and Tuting — are scheduled to be inaugurated in the next three months. The ALG project at Tawang, which was taken up in 2014, is expected to be ready by September 2016.

The upgradation includes new runway surfaces, aprons for ground manoeuvring, air traffic control tower with associated infrastructure, perimeter road and a security wall.

The runway length and width will also enable ATR class of fixed wing operations in most of the ALGs. In 2009, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved reconstruction of eight ALGs to improve the border infrastructure at a cost of nearly Rs 1,000 crore.

While seven would be ready this year, upgradation of the ALG at Vijaynagar would take more time in the absence of proper road connectivity from Miao to Vijaynagar for carrying materials, machinery and manpower, said an official from the eastern air command. IAF flights to Vijaynagar were discontinued in 2009 due to poor condition of the runway made out of pierced steel plate sheets.

However, in November 2011, an IAF An-32 landed in Vijaynagar after extensive repair work of the runway, but regular flights are still not possible. Located near the 1,080 km Sino-Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh, these ALGs are crucial for India’s military strategies in the eastern front.

The Arunachal Pradesh government had requested the Centre to reactivate two more ALGs at Koloriang in Kurung Kumey district and Anini in Dibang Valley district.