India may still have to rely on narrow by-foot lanes to approach the strategically important Himalayan border with Tibet/ China via Pithorgarh due to poor road facility, but it may soon have air transport service to improve its mobility in this Himalayan sector with the Naini-Saini airstrip in the said border district going to be ready by early next year, facilitating flying services of a 48-seater aircraft.
Officials concerned said that earlier the Naini-Saini airstrip was being designed to accommodate only a 12-seater small aircraft.
Perhaps keeping in view of the strategic as well as domestic importance of this air base, the State Government later decided to upgrade the said airstrip for a 48-seater aircraft. Construction work is in full swing to complete this airstrip as early as possible, said Gambhir Singh, Project Manager, the Uttarakhand Infrastructure Development Corporation (UIDC), while talking to The Pioneer in an exclusive interview.
“Although work has been delayed at least by one month due to the natural calamity, we are hopeful that the Naini-Saini airstrip will be functional by May next year,” he said.
The much talked about Naini-Saini airstrip in Pithoragarh which has already been running behind schedule for years, was delayed again when a private consultancy firm which had been earlier hired for drafting the design of the said airstrip, backed out from the deal about two years back, citing delay on part of the State Government in settling the deal as a reason behind its decision to back out. later, the State Government had to hire the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) to look after the designing aspect of this important Naini-Saini airstrip, officials concerned said. Meanwhile, keeping in view certain delay in completing the said airstrip on time, the State Government then decided to complete this project in two years time. However, given the progress of the construction works, it seems the project would be completed by May 2014, an official informed. "There is no funds constraint. We have already received Rs 3 crore to carry out the construction works this year so far. An additional amount of Rs 22 crore has to be released for this project," added the Project Manager, UIDC, adding this is total Rs 48 crore project.