LEH: In order to explore the possibilities for operation of civil airline services in Kargil district, Joint Secretary Civil Aviation, Government of India, Usha Padhee along with the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Ladakh Saugat Biswas and technical officers from Airport Authority of India, Spice Jet and Local Air Force inspected the technical feasibility for civilian operations from the Kargil Airport.
Deputy Commissioner and CEO, LAHDC Kargil Santosh Sukhadeve, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Kargil Tsering Motup, Additional (SP) Kargil Iftikhar Talib Choudhary, ACR Kargil Abdul Gaffar Zargar, Under Secretary Civil Aviation Mohammad Shabir, technical experts from Spice Jet Captain Gurucharan Arora and Bala Subramanian, members of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) Malkeet Singh and Gaurav Raghuvanshi, officers of Kargil Airport besides other concerned officers were present on the occasion. Various trial landing and takeoff simulations were conducted over the airport on the Pawan Hans MI-172 aircraft and possibility of test flying smaller jets were also explored keeping the safety of civilian passengers at the forefront.
Deputy Commissioner Kargil Santosh Sukhadeve apprised the Joint Secretary Civil Aviation GoI Usha Padhee that adequate land is available for future extension of the runway if so required. While inspecting the technical feasibility of Kargil Airport, Captain Gurucharan Arora said that extension of the runway will have satisfactory natural upgrading for landing as well as downgrading for acceleration of aircrafts while take off. He also said that edge lights at the runway and various other necessary arrangements need to be done. As a result of the visit and subsequent consultative meeting a strategy for operating civilian fixed wing flying was worked out for bringing into execution.
The Civil Aviation team called on the Lt. Governor RK Mathur later in the day.
