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| Antony leaves a mark at unbelievable heights | | | NEW DELHI: Union Defence Minister AK Antony today became the first Defence Minister of the country to touch the Advanced Landing Ground (ALG), Nyoma, near the Line of Actual Control.
Accompanied by the Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and other senior officials from the Ministry, senior officers of Army and Air Force based at Leh, Antony flew in a Mi-17 helicopter to land at Nyoma, at a height of 13,300 feet.
Earlier, a fixed wing military cargo aircraft, an AN-32 had made a maiden landing at the compacted airstrip of Nyoma. This was on September 18 last year. The Herculean task of developing the ALG to the standards required for fixed wing operations was undertaken by the Engineers' Regiment of 14 Corps. An advanced compound was used to surface the airstrip through joint effort by the IAF and Indian Army to enable aircraft to operate through the inhospitable terrain of Leh-Ladakh.
Nyoma has been developed with an aim to connect the remote areas of Ladakh to the mainland. Antony also visited the Siachen Base camp to have a first-hand experience of the progress made to improve the living and operational requirements of Defence Forces since his last visit to the area in May 2007.
He spoke to Jawans and officers of the Army and Air Force and sought their frank views on the situation. A Ministry of Defence statement issued in New Delhi on Tuesday said that many Jawans expressed their gratitude to the Defence Minister for substantially improving the quality of rations for those deployed in high-altitude areas.
Antony had a chance meeting with a group of soldiers who had just returned from their deployment in the high-altitude areas. He offered them farm-fresh fruits and vegetables which he was carrying from the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) in Leh. During the discussions the Jawans wanted that some of the accessories such as quality of socks should be improved. They also wanted increased number of snow-mobiles for their operational requirements.
They also requested that the telephone call rates should be reduced to facilitate communication with their family members. Shri Antony assured them that early action would be taken on all the issues raised by them.
The Defence Minister reviewed the security situation in both the eastern and western sectors of Jammu and Kashmir with the Army and the Air Force. He was given a detailed briefing by Air Officer Commanding, Leh, Air Commodore Anil Tiwari and about the operations by Commanding, J&K, Air Vice Marshal J Chauhan on the future infrastructure development such as developing composite airbase at forward areas to enhance infrastructure for air operations. Stressing on the improvement in the quality of life of IAF personnel posted at such a high-altitude he also reviewed various welfare measures being undertaken by the Air Force station's administration.
The Defence Minister was also given a detailed briefing on the security situation on the border by the GOC 14 Corps Lt General SK Singh.
Taking time off from his hectic schedule, Antony also visited the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), a constituent laboratory of DRDO. Located at 3,500 metres above the sea-level, DIHAR is involved with research to not only improve the quality of life of soldiers but also its pass on spin-offs to civilian sectors for their benefit. It is currently working on a project of greening Ladakh with sustainable plant cultivation. It is the only institute of its kind in the world with core competence in cold, arid agro-animal technology.
Antony went around the complex and saw how new techniques in cultivation are being applied. He evinced keen interest in some of the products developed by DIHAR such as hybrid vegetables, kits for detecting and treating high altitude sickness and various nutritional products developed by the institute.
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