AGATTI AIRPORT COMPLETES 25 YEARS OF SERVICE
-effgee
[The writer of this article was
working at Agatti during the construction period right from the Soil testing up
to landing of aircrafts at Agatti
Airport. He had the
privilege of availing an air journey on the beginning of flight service from
Agatti to Kochi Airport
at Willington Island. And he was also lucky enough to
witness the development that took place in the Airport during the two and half
decades as he had been working at Agatti from December 2008 to June 2012 ]
It was during 1988 Lakshadweep appeared on Air Map
of India when Agatti Airport was dedicated to the people of Lakshadweep by
Shri.Motilal Vorah, the then Hon’ble Minister of Civil Aviation Government of
India on 16.04.1988. It was a historic day for Lakshadweep.
The inaugural function was held in a colorful and festive mood. A special
stage was arranged in the premises, just outside of the northern end fencing of
the airport. Shri Wajahath Habeebullah, the then Administrator of
Lakshadweep, Shri.H.K.Singh,Chairman & MD
Vayudoot, Shri. K.Karunakaran, Shri. M.M.Jacob, Shri.P.C.Chacko and
Shri.P.M.Sayeed, Member of Parliament were the dignitaries who attended the
inaugural function along with Shri.Motilal Vorah, the then Hon’ble Minister of
Civil Aviation.
The construction of this Airport was
a time bound project which was monitored by the Prime Minister’s secretariat. The
construction works were carried out by the National Building Construction
Corporation (NBCC), New Delhi
under the close supervision of International Airports Authority of India (IAAI),
later renamed as Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the work was
successfully completed within a period of 11 months.
The land for the purpose of a defence airport was initially
identified during 1984 with an aim to have an airstrip at Agatti, Lakshadweep considering the geographical isolation and defence
importance of the eastern most part of our country. An area of land measuring
about 2 kilometers length at the southern part of the Agatti Island
was owned by about 45 families. Individual plots measured about 1.6 KM and rest
of the land was accreted. While celebrating the Silver Jubilee of the Airport,
we must reminiscence the names of those land owners who had wholeheartedly
expressed their consent to contribute land for a general cause of constructing
a run way. The major part of the land from the southern end to the northern end
of the airport was owned by Shri. Pandarapura Kidave Malmi, Shri.
Mukriyoda Hamzakoya, Shri.Attamchetta Mohammed, Shri U.Abdulkader Master, Shri.
Mariyammakada Kasmi and Kader (about 2 acres), Shri.Pappada Mohammed Malmi
& others (about more than 2 acres) and Shri. Kotta Aboosala, as per survey
records. None of them are alive today.
The land area starting from the small Mosque namely
‘Thekku Thangey Palli’ was full of mangroves, coconut trees and other local
varieties of bushes. After completion of the soil testing and jungle clearing
the site looked like a desert with white sand. About 200 labourers were engaged
to work round the clock in most of the days. The construction materials were
transported from Mangalore in a time bound manner by chartering 6 vessels
(Motor Sailing Vessels- MSVs). The materials were brought from Mainland in a
systematic way. Two vessels were made to load the materials from Mangalore port,
two full loaded vessels were used to be on the way sailing towards Agatti from
Mangalore and another two vessels were used to unload the materials at Agatti
simultaneously. The heavy machineries like mixing plants, huge rollers, trucks
etc were brought from the mainland by the construction company and put on works
successfully. There was no electricity at this site but they managed machinery
works by installing power generators. In a place like this remote and isolated
island, the transportation of these heavy machineries/plants was really a
highly risky job and this task was carried out by the NBCC. In order to
minimize the communication gap they had installed radio/VHF and HF
communication system in the site through which timely communications were
easily made with mainland sea ports and airports.
Former Prime Minister of India Late Shri. Rajiv Gandhi who
came for holidaying with family to Bangaram, Lakshadweep had inspected the
progress of the construction works of Agatti Airport
during the last week of December 1987. The works of run way was nearing
competition at that point of time.
The air service in this airport was started with
Vayudood-Avro aircraft (48 seater) in the beginning and then with NEPC Airlines
(Fokker) followed by Indian Airlines Dornier. After that the Indian Airlines and the Kingfisher
Airlines (66 seater ATR) were operating their flights successfully in this
sector Bangalore-Kochi-Agatti throughout the year. But the Kingfisher Airlines wound
up their service with effect from 24th March 2012. Presently Air India operates flight
service daily except Sunday.
The airport activities were started functioning with
temporary structures during 1988. Now the civil works are in progress to
facilitate passengers at arrival and departure lounge. Administration has
proposed to expand the run way with an aim to facilitate bigger Aircrafts to
land here as Agatti is considered as the gate way of Lakshadweep.
After completing 20 years of service of Agatti
Airport then, strengthening and resurfacing works of Agatti Airport was
commenced during 2010 by establishing a project office under the supervision of
Shri.L.N.Tatwani from AAI,(who constructed this airport originally in 1987-88)
now General Manager Engg ( Civil) at
Agatti. All materials and machineries required for the works was again
transported all the way from Mangalore and Beypore. This was the major task of
the project. A Dubai
based cargo ship M.V. Majestic Star was engaged for transporting bulk cargo of
materials of about 7500 tones. It was for the first time the ship was
safely berthed at Agatti Eastern side Embarkation Jetty on 13th May 2010 and
discharged the cargo easily within 2 weeks with the help of movable cranes.
Many materials were also transported through local Manjus (MSVs) and
Administration’s cargo ships during this period. The project costing about
Rupees 12 Crore for resurfacing/strengthening works of run way including the Threshold
Wing bar lighting works on both sides of runway was carried out by a private firm M/S Vishal
Infrastructure Ltd, Bangalore
and successfully completed during the end of November 2010. The uninterrupted
daily flights operation on this run way caused little bit delay in completing
the strengthening works of runway during the period.
Now, according to the new master plan, the run way
is to be extended towards village side (Approximately 283 M) and as well as Kalpitti
side (Approximately 778 M) subject to the approval of Environment Ministry so
as to enable bigger aircrafts like ATR 72-500 Series (70 seater) with maximum
Take – off Weight 22,500 kgm/49,604 lb (MToW) to land in future. The arrival
and departure lounges are also to be shifted to the western side as per the
master plan. The new terminal building will come up on a platform constructed
towards western side beach in the lagoon with modern facilities. The proposed
run way will be extended towards Kalpitti
Island by providing strong piling works
in between the southern tip of Agatti Island and Kalpitti, as per the master plan for up
gradation and modification of Agatti
Airport. Presently the Agatti Airport
run way has a length of 1204 Mts and width is 30 Mts only.
A lot of VVIPs
and VIPs landed at this gate way of Lakshadweep,
Agatti airport during the last three years. Smt Sonia Gandhi on 16-12-2008, Her
Excellency President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Pater who came in a
special aircraft of Indian Air force landed here on 24-12-2009. Lok Sabha
Speaker Smt Meera Kumar on 13.01.-2010, Shri. P.Chidambaran, Minister of Home
Affairs on 03-11-2010, Shri.M.S.Gill, Minister of Sports & Youth Affairs on
19-12-2010, Shri. Mullapalli Ramachandren, Minister of State for Home Affairs
on 25-01-2010,, Professor.K.V.Thomas, Shri.A.K. Antony, Minister of Defence on
24-12-2010 Minister of State for
Agriculture, Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution on 28-10-2010, Shri
Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Science & Technology
and Earth Science on 21st April 2011, Shri.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on
29-12-2011, Parliament Estimate Committee and numerous other
committees consisting of Parliament members both from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
are among them who landed at Agatti Airport and I had the privilege of doing
the photo coverage of the visit of the above guests to Lakshadweep.
The
commissioning of this airport has been a boon for the budding tourism industry
in Lakshadweep and the people in general. Of
course, it was a right step towards the improvement of the connectivity between
mainland and islands, 25 years ago. The commissioning of Agatti
Airport was a milestone in the history
of Lakshadweep which has helped for the
development of better connectivity to these remote and geographically isolated
beautiful islands.
.
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