PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
The State government will set up an aviation academy at Parag Farm of Udham Singh Nagar for training of the pilots. An order in this regard was given by chief secretary Anand Bardhan during a review meeting of the Civil Aviation department at the State secretariat on Wednesday. In the meeting, the CS stressed on the need to saturate the State with heliports and helipads and said this will prove to be a lifeline for Uttarakhand. He directed that Dehradun be connected to all district headquarters of the State by air.
The CS also directed that Pauri district should be connected with a regular air service. He said that Lansdowne is one of Uttarakhand’s main hill stations. He stated that possibilities for connecting Lansdowne with air connectivity should be explored.
The CS directed that all necessary procedures should be completed for setting up Air Traffic Control (ATC) for Badrinath and Kedarnath Dham soon. He said that the civil work for setting up the ATC will be done by the State Government and manpower and technical assistance will be provided by the Airport Authority of India. He said that air services are continuously expanding in the State, hence it is necessary that an ATC mechanism should be established across the state so that air travel can be safe. He gave the target of ATC saturation across the State to UCADA and asked to keep in constant touch with the Airport Authority in this regard.
Vardhan also emphasized the need to install Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and PTZ cameras across the State to ensure safe air travel.
The CS also directed the expansion of robust air connectivity in remote and underserved areas. To achieve this, he emphasized the need to saturate the state with heliports and helipads. He also called for work to establish air strips or heliports in Gunji and Adi Kailash, given the growing tourism activity.
He said that the expansion of Pantnagar Airport is underway. He said that a complete connectivity plan for the Kumaun region should be developed through this airport. Secretary Vinay Shankar Pandey and CEO UCADA Prateek Jain were present on the occasion.
