Nyoma airfield will be a game changer, says Rajnath Singh; inaugurates 90 BRO projects

The BRO has also connected the farthest and most remote villages of the country like Huri in Arunachal Pradesh to the mainland.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the Nyoma airfield in eastern Ladakh will be a game-changer for the armed forces as he virtually laid the foundation stone of the upcoming airfield that will be located less 50 km from the Line of Actual Control – the disputed boundary between the two neighbours.

India has begun preparing a 10,000 ft runway and other infrastructure at Nyoma in a Rs 200 crore project so that the Indian Air Force can launch its MiG-29 or Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft from a position close to the LAC.

This airfield, one of the world’s highest, would boost the air infrastructure in Ladakh and augment IAF’s capability along the northern border. “It will prove to be a game-changer for the armed forces,” Singh said.

Continuing India’s renewed push on improving the border infrastructure, the defence minister inaugurated 90 Border Road Organisation’s connectivity projects including bridges and tunnels in Arunachal Pradesh, refurbished airfields in West Bengal and road links along the northern border.

Among the new infrastructure projects in the Northeast are Devak bridge on the Bishnah-Kaulpur-Phulpur road – a 422.9 meter long Class 70 RCC bridge that is of strategic importance in Arunachal Pradesh and the 500 mt Nechiphu tunnel, which along with the under construction Sela Tunnel, will provide all-weather connectivity to the strategic Tawang sector.

Revamped airfields at Bagdogra and Barrackpore in West Bengal were also thrown open for operations. The two airfields, reconstructed at a cost of over Rs 500 crore, will not only bolster the IAF preparedness, but also facilitate commercial flight operations in the region.

The BRO projects worth Rs 2,900 also include two helipads; 22 roads and 63 bridges. Of these 90 projects, 36 are in Arunachal Pradesh; 26 in Ladakh; 11 in Jammu & Kashmir; five in Mizoram; three in Himachal Pradesh; two each in Sikkim, Uttarakhand & West Bengal and one each in Nagaland, Rajasthan and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The military road construction agency completed 295 infrastructure projects worth Rs 8,000 crore in the last three years. In 2022, 103 projects worth about Rs 2,900 crore were inaugurated while in 2021, 102 projects costing over Rs 2,200 crore have been made operational.

Singh inaugurated all the projects online from Jammu where he was addressing a seminar on military technologies at IIT Jammu.