Jodhpur Civil Airport: Indian Air Force trades land for expansion

On Tuesday, for a significant development towards the expansion of Jodhpur Civil Airport, 37 acres of land owned by Jodhpur Air Force Station was handed over to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). In exchange, the IAF has been assigned a similar size of land by the Jodhpur Municipal Corporation. Abhinav Singh, Defence Estate Officer, Jodhpur Circle, told the media that the Air Force destroyed all its establishments on this land before finally giving this land parcel to the civil airport for expansion. Additionally, he said, 2.42 acre is forest land, and for the alteration of this land, the AAI would be undertaking procedure as per the conditions of MoU. This land will expedite the airport to further increase its facilities to accommodate more passenger planes. This transfer of land is the outcome of an MoU signed in 2017 between several stakeholders according to which, 37 acres of land was to be assigned by the IAF to the airport in exchange for the same size of land to the Air Force by JMC. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who contributed to stimulating the process of the transfer of land so that the required extension of the civil airport would complete quickly, said that a taxiway and apron have already been created. And with this transfer of land now, the AAI will undertake the development of a terminal building. He also added that the expansion would help in the parking of 9-12 passenger planes as against four planes currently and accommodate around 500 passengers at the airport at a time. A PIL has also been issued in the high court by a voluntary organisation LIBRA India emphasising the need for enlargement of the Jodhpur Airport, indicating a lack of sufficient connectivity of flights at night. The interference of the court then led to the installation of an Instrument Landing System (ILS) to facilitate the night landing of planes followed by the construction of a taxiway. Image Source Also read: Aircraft MRO: AAI to offer land in 8 airports