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HYDERABAD: The Indian Navy's proposed communication station in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district hit a roadblock due to hitches. As a result, the Navy has started scouting for land afresh at a new location after the earlier identified reserve forest land near Pudur was found unviable due to transmission lines passing through it and encroachments.

Sources said naval officers are reportedly looking for alternate land near Naskal, also in RR district.

A couple of years ago, the Indian Navy had decided to set up a very low frequency (VLF) communication station near the city, due to its strategic location, and keep tabs on Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. Also, Hyderabad was chosen as the location as several defence organisations have their institutions in the city and surrounding areas.

Indian Navy Commodore (Signals) Capt Alok Khanojo and joint director of Design Chief Engineer Office of Indian Navy, TV Rao met the then Ranga Reddy district collector and sought land for the station. Initially they sought about 3,000 acres since huge extent of the land was not available in the area, officials identified about 2,700 acres reserve forest land in Pudur area. In the forest land, some assignees have been cultivating for decades. The district administration agreed to give about 1,400 acres land and even gram sabhas were conducted in Pudur and surrounding villages to get support as some assignees might lose land for providing civic infrastructure for the station.

Since the land was being sought for defence purpose, the state government and the forest department readily agreed to give it. The 2,700 acres forest land was surveyed and demarcated for setting up the station. As some trees were to be removed to pave way for the communication station, the Indian Navy agreed to even pay Rs six crore to plant saplings.

Official sources said the defence ministry had sanctioned about Rs 300 crore to set up the station in Pudur. However, when the Navy officials were about to take over possession of the land, they found that there were transmission lines near the land and encroachments had come up.

When contacted, RR district law officer D Venugopal Rao said they sought a report from Pudur tahsildar on encroachments and temple land in the identified land and were waiting for a reply.[hr]
Link Navy planning new air base in Karnataka

Strengthening its capabilities along the western seaboard, the Indian Navy is planning to establish a new naval air base in Karwar in Karnataka for operating both fighter and surveillance aircraft.

"We have plans of establishing a Naval Air Station at Karwar for basing and operation of fixed and rotary-wing military aircraft," Navy officials said on Tuesday.

The naval air base is part of the Navy's Rs 10,000 crore plans under the phase II of the Project Sea Bird.

Aircraft carrier 'Admiral Gorshkov', which India is getting from Russia, six Scorpene submarines and several other warships will be based there in the future.

The Navy already has an air base in Goa and has deployed its MiG 29K and Sea Harrier fighter aircraft there.

It has also placed orders for 29 more MiG 29K carrier- borne fighter planes from Russia along with the indigenous versions of the naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft 'Tejas'.

Under the Phase-II of the Project, Karwar will get an armament depot, dockyard complex and missile silos, apart from additional jetties, berthing and anchorage facilities.

It is planning to expand the base to the extent where it can provide requisite berthing and operational fleet base facilities for the operation, administration and command and control of over 30 warships and submarines.

The Karwar base would be the third such major base of the Indian Navy and is being strengthened at a time when Pakistan is developing ports with the help of the Chinese and would also providing strategic depth to its maritime force.

It would also help the Navy in decongesting its base in Mumbai which has seen a significant increase in merchant shipping.