A very old air base located in the mountainous terrain of the Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir was made operational once again by the Indian air force on Saturday 31 May. This air strip at the Dawaltbaigh Oldi was shut down some 43 years ago. At around 8:50 am on Saturday, an AN-32 transporter plane from Chandigarh carrying Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Western Air Command), P K Barbora touched down on this air strip.

 

The air base was set up in 1962 during the Indo-China war and closed in 1965. PK Barbora remarked the previous week that opening up and operating this air base would prove a point to the world that India is capable of manning airfield at such a high altitude. This air base in the Ladakh region overlooks the Karakoram pass and is situated just eight km from the Chinese border. It is reported that the Indian Air Force plans to fly out frequent AN-32 transport aircraft flights from here from now onwards.