CCoimbatore: The Indian Air Force (IAF), which has an air base in Sulur, has decided to set up a ‘weapon storage point’ nearby and plans to construct a parallel taxi way at the base. The facility would help the IAF store strategic weapons, including missiles, in Sulur and it would be easy to move these during war across southern India.
The Ministry of Defence has approached the state government to acquire 700 acres of land near the Sulur air base for this. The district administration has sent details of the land to be acquired to the state government. It is awaiting administrative sanction, said a source. Once the state government grants administrative sanction, an officer will be appointed exclusively to acquire land. The Union government will bear the compensation to be given to land owners.
The source said the revenue department has to land from private people in at least five villages, including Kalangal, Kangeyampalayam and Appanaickenpatti.
The Ministry of Defence and the state government have been corresponding for the past few years. There is no major weapon storage point in the Southern Air Command that covers the entire Bay of Bengal up to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. If the facility is set up near the Sulur air base, moving weapons across the region will be easy.
The source said the Ministry of Defence had decided to speed up the project to face challenges looming in the horizon. With Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose support for China is known, in the saddle in Sri Lanka, it would be prudent for India to focus on the Southern Air Command, particularly the Bay of Bengal. It is only in the initial stage, revenue department officials told TOI. “If the Ministry of Defence asks us to speed up the land acquisition, the state government would do so,” said a source from the revenue department.
When contacted, Dhanya Sanal K, public relations officer of Defence Southern Command, said such details cannot be revealed by the department.
Source: TOI
Image Courtesy: Compton Herald
You may also like
-
IAF Aircraft Set Course For Exercise Eastern Bridge VII At Oman
-
IAF Set To Host The Indian Defence Aviation Exposition-II At Jodhpur
-
Defence Secretary to co-chair 5th India-Philippines Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting in Manila
-
Simultaneous Launch Of ‘malpe And Mulki’, Fourth And Fifth Ships Of Asw Swc (Csl) Project
-
Aatmanirbharta in Defence: MoD signs Contract with HAL for 240 AL-31FP Aero Engines for Su-30MKI Aircraft
