Indian govt clears plans for IAF base close to Pak border

New Delhi, March 24, 2018 (PPI-OT): India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has cleared a long-pending Indian Air Force (IAF) plan to set up a forward fighter base close to Deesa in Banaskantha district, near India’s western border in northwest Gujarat.

Media reports said that the CCS had cleared the initial investment of around Rs 1,000 crore to extend the runway, build fighter-pens and administrative facilities. Although the defence ministry is tight-lipped about which fighters will be based in Deesa, it is a fact that the new base will increase IAF’s ability to respond swiftly in case of any hostilities in India’s western skies.

The base will come under the Air Force’s Gandhinagar-headquartered South Western Air Command (SWAC), which was headed by IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, in 2014-15. SWAC’s area of responsibility covers Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and Deesa will be the ninth base under it.

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