New Delhi: Is India preparing to bring back the Kailashahar airport in Tripura back into operation?
On Monday, a high-level delegation from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) visited the abandoned airport and its surroundings to assess the present situation.
When asked by journalists whether the airport will be reopened, officials said that further planning will be done after consultation with the state government.
Some believe that this move by India is a counter-measure against Bangladesh’s plans to hand over the air strip at Lalmonirhat in the Rangpur division to China for redevelopment. It has come to be known that China plans to hire a Pakistani agency for the work. Recently, a Chinese team visited Lalmonirhat.
Lalmonirhat is a World War – II air strip used by the Allied Forces in their ‘Over the Hump’ operations against Japanese forces. It is situated barely 20 km from Siliguri in India’s strategic ‘Chicken Neck’ Corridor that connects the northeastern states with the rest of the country.
Lalmonirhat is also only 132 km from the Indian Air Force’s strategic air base at Hasimara, close to the Indo-Bhutan border. Air Force Station Hasimara is home to the second Rafale squadron of the IAF.
“Bangladesh’s sudden interest in Lalmonirhat and its decision to allow China to redevelop the air field is certainly suspect. Knowing the way China operates, there is every possibility that it will invest to build a proper airport at Lalmonirhat and then use a part of the facility to set up its military assets. These may include missile systems, radars and even fighters and bombers,” a senior official said.
The Kailashahar airport will be an effective foil, officials believe. While it would be developed into a civilian airport, the second one in Tripura after the one at Agartala, Kailashahar may also be used by the IAF as and when required, just as Bagdogra.
The Kailashahar airport in northern Tripura was closed down in the 1990s, but operations there can be revived, officials have said.
If Kailashahar does reopen, it will be a reminder to Bangladesh that this was the airport where Kilo Flight, a hit-and-run strike group – the predecessor to the Bangladesh Air Force – was born in 1971.
Even as Bangladesh’s Mukti Bahini battled the Pakistan Army with a DHC-3 Otter, a French-made Alouette II helicopter armed with rocket pods and machine guns, and a DC-3 Dakota.