MI-17 helicopters need one km of sanitised area for safe landing.
The Home Ministry has given approval to a long standing demand of security forces - night landing facilities in Maoist-hit areas of Chhattisgarh, sources told NDTV. The Airports Authority of India has been given instructions and soon, aircraft will be landing at Jagdalpur, the airport closest to Bastar, the epicenter of the Maoist-affected zone in the state.
The decision was taken following the recommendation of a high-level committee, headed by the former director of Central Reserve Police Force, General K Vijay Kumar, in the wake of the December 1 attack in Sukma, in which 14 security men were killed.
The home ministry has said the funds to upgrade the airport would come from security-related expenditure, sources said.
The CRPF - which has been carrying on the anti-Maoist operations in the state - has been demanding clearance for night flying for long.
The forces say night flying will help in rescue operations in the event of Naxal attacks. It will also help fly in additional troops at need.
Currently, casualty evacuation is possible only during the day. During the December 1 attack in Sukma, the injured personnel had to wait for 12 hours to get evacuated by air and receive proper medical attention. In some cases, soldiers have also died because they could not get medical treatment on time.
An approval for night flying, though, can only solve part of the problem. Sorties are possible only when the destination has been sanitised by ground troops. This is often not possible at night.
According to the Standard Operating Procedure formulated three years ago, the MI-17 helicopters used by the Indian Air Force for evacuation can land only if a one-sq-km radius in the landing zone has been sanitized. But despite this SOP being enforced, IAF aircraft have been fired upon by Maoists while on casualty evacuation and on two occasions, pilots have been injured.