The international tag to the Indian Air Force airport, which is located close to the Pakistan border, was given for February 25 to March 5, so that guests invited to the wedding can land close to the venue.
Sensitive Defence Airport in Jamnagar Gets International Tag
In a rare case, the Modi government has given the international tag to the sensitive defence airport at Gujarat’s Jamnagar town for just 10 days so that guests invited to the wedding of Mukesh Ambani’s son can land close to the venue. The international tag to the Indian Air Force airport located close to the Pakistan border was given for February 25 to March 5.
Billionaire businessman Ambani, a fellow Gujarati seen close to PM Modi, is hosting many guests from the global who’s who list arriving from different parts of the world to attend son Anant Ambani’s wedding to Radhika Merchant, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant. According to airport officials, between February 28 and March 4, the Jamnagar airport is expected to receive at least 150 aircraft. “Of these, 50 are flying in directly from foreign locations. During these five days, there will be more than 300 aircraft movements at the airport,” D.K. Singh, airport director at Jamnagar.
“The Union government’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs have pressed in resources to set up a Custom, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facility at the airport.” Especially for the wedding, the Air Force has not only permitted access of these private aircraft to its sensitive “technical” area, also, “in preparation for the massive inflow of guests, the AAI (Airports Authority of India) has expanded the size of its passenger building from 475 sq km to 900 sq m, allowing it to accommodate nearly 360 passengers during peak hours as compared to 180 earlier.”
“Thirty-five house-keeping staff have been added to the existing strength of 16; the (BJP-ruled) state (Gujarat) government has also doubled the deployment of security personnel from 35 to 70; ground handling agencies have raised the strength of their staff from 65 to 125”.
This past November, Prime Minister Modi had appealed to rich Indians to ‘wed in India’ in his Maan Ki Baat radio speech. It is not clear yet whether that appeal coincided with the special preparations that his government was carrying out at the Jamnagar defence airport for the Ambani wedding.
