Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Lakshadweep, which generated a great deal of interest from visitors, India is now proceeding with plans to build a new airport in Minicoy Islands, where it would be able to accommodate both military and private aircraft.
“The plan is to have a dual-purpose airfield that would be capable of operating both fighter jets, other military planes and commercial aircraft,” sources within the government .A new airstrip on the Minicoy Islands was to be developed; an earlier project was passed to the government. The plan has now been revived and brought back to the administration with the goal of promoting a shared use.
Given that it may be utilised as a base to monitor the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean region, where piracy and anti-social activities are on the rise, the airfield will be strategically significant to India.
The first agency within the Defence Ministry to propose the construction of an airfield in the Minicoy Islands was the Indian Coast Guard. The current plan calls for the Indian Air Force to assume command of operations out of Minicoy.
Additionally, the Minicoy airport will enable the armed forces to increase the scope of their Arabian Sea monitoring. As the government has intended, the airport will also help to increase tourism in the area. Currently, Agatti is the only airfield in the Union Territory that can accommodate narrow-body aircraft.
The idea to build a new airport and expand the current ones has lately come back into favor. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the series of islands last week, when he unveiled a number of development projects and tried his hand at snorkeling, the islands have been the focus of conversation and attention.
