Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to bring back the iconic Dakota aircraft used by former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik during the Indonesian freedom struggle to Odisha soon. The dilapidated aircraft is stationed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, since 1947.
A decision in this regard was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by the Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy here at the Lok Seva Bhawan, Thursday.
“Today we have in-principle decided to bring back the Dakota aircraft. A letter in this regard will be sent to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry. Thereafter steps will be taken for its safe display of the aircraft,” Electronics & IT secretary Manoj Mishra told reporters here after the meeting.
The state government has taken this step in the backdrop of Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) move to sell the Dakota aircraft as scrap.
Sources said that the aircraft will be brought to Odisha by road because it may not be possible to bring the aircraft as a whole through any other mode. The aircraft will be dismantled and reassembled again here. After giving a new look, the aircraft likely to be kept inside the Biju Patnaik International Airport.
Earlier, the state government had decided to display the aircraft on Anand Bhawan premises, the ancestral house of Biju Patnaik at Tulsipur in Cuttack. However, the decision was altered later due to lack of space, the source said.
The aircraft bearing registration VT – AUI is now stationed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata.
Dakota was this aircraft on which he had flown out Sultan Sjahrir, the revolutionary independence leader and Prime Minister of Indonesia from a jungle hideout and reached India via Singapore July 24, 1947, on the instructions of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
It was also used in the Kashmir operation in 1947-48 when Biju ferried troops to Srinagar along with medical assistance and other supplies.