Tussle over Safdarjung Airport

New Delhi: The country's most VVIP getaway Safdarjung Airport that's used exclusively for chopper flights of the President, PM and few others is now fighting to retain its sprawling home for decades. The urban development ministry has taken back 190 acres of the airport complex, where construction work on various projects is going on, from the aviation ministry.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI), that's in possession of the land, has been asked to vacate these areas and immediately stop all ongoing construction here. An extension wing of the aviation ministry headquarters, Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, is being built here along with a sub-station, a fire station and an emergency medical centre. While the basic UD premise is that the ongoing works at Safdarjung Airport are not related to aviation, the aviation ministry is preparing a case to retain the `disputed' land.
The latter has pointed out that ministry of home affairs in 2001 (post 9/11) decided to use this as the emergency getaway for the President and the PM. Top constitutional dignitaries like them use this airport for flying in choppers in and around Delhi from their close-by official residences. Ministry sources point out that almost 80 to 90 chopper movements take place every month. Chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana also land at the airport in small aircraft.
06/04/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2010