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History Of Safdarjung Airport




The first of the old day airport in Delhi was known initially as Willingdon Airfield, taken after the name of the then Governor General and Viceroy of India, from the period of 1931 to 1936, Lord Willingdon. In those days, the airport had a few tents, alongside the large grassy area, where the first flight of airmail landed on 18th November 1918. The first cross country flight connecting London, Delhi and Cairo also landed in that year. But the total infrastructure of the airport came up only after a decade, allowing for commercial flights to start landing in 1927. The very next year, the airport’s name was officially changed to Willingdon Airport and there was the establishment of Delhi Flying Club.

In 1941, Indian division of British Army wanted to have its personal units of airborne and parachute borne soldiers, for which the Air Landing School or ALS was set up in the airport’s southwest side, which was part of the Royal Indian Air Force. At this place, the first Indian paratroopers had their training, among them Lt AG Ranjaraj, the first paratrooper from India, was the recipient of MVC and belonged to Indian Medical Service and had the posting of Regimental Medical Officer of 152 Parachute Battalion India.

After Independence

After independence of India in 1947, the airport was named after the Safdarjung’s Tomb as Safdarjung Airport, because the backdrop of the airport is having this particular tomb. For more than two decades, this was the important airport of Delhi, till the time Palam in West Delhi was chosen as the site of a new Airport, and then Palam Airport was relocated outside the city. Palam Airport in the initial days was initiated as RAF station, especially during the time of World War II, which presently has been expanded hugely to form the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the shift was being done in 1962 as the traffic became quite huge. The old Palam Airport is still in use, although by smaller planes and smaller aviation purposes, with necessary caution of landing, about the highway flyover nearby. Presently, major part of New Delhi flights is served by Indira Gandhi International Airport, where there are three runways, with traffic of over 60 carriers of international and domestic airlines.

When the attack of 9/11 had occurred in 2001, it was decided by the Home Ministry to use this particular airport as the place for getaway of the Prime Minister and President. Then, in 2002, it was further decided to stop all kinds of flying of public aircrafts and the flight base of Delhi Flying Club was moved to Hisar Airport. Thereafter, this particular airport has been in use for transit of VVIP helicopters to the Indira Gandhi International Airport for reasons concerning security and it also helped in preventing the traffic hassles for the public during the movements of the VVIPs. From the early part of 2000, the PM is seen off by his cabinet members and other important dignitaries from this airport and not from the IGI Airport. This particular airstrip is also used by the chief ministers of Haryana and Punjab, for their helicopter movements, so that in a month, about 80 to 90 movements of helicopters are seen. It is also occasionally used by Airport Authority of India as well as Pawan Hans, which is the official helicopter company. Ministry of Aviation has opposed the idea of having a tunnel built from this airport to the residence of PM at 7, Race Course Road.

Role in Commonwealth Games 2010

When Commonwealth Games 2010 was held in New Delhi, Safdarjung Airport was used for the purpose of parking vehicles and going to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. This was planned due to the huge area of 1,70,000 sq m of parking space, where about 450 buses, 6000 two wheelers and 3000 cars could be parked. NMDC had taken up the work of renovation of this area for the Games, prior to one year of the event and resultantly, plenty of work was done, such as road construction inside the premises, barriers made of jersey between the temporary purpose area of parking and the primary flying tarmac.

Nearby Safdarjung Airport are the residential areas like Laxmibai Nagar, Jorbagh, Sarojini Nagar and the INA Colony, where there are houses of Airport Authority employees.

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