Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that despite the tsunami disaster almost wiping out the Carnic Indian Air Force (IAF) base in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the plan for a major expansion of facilities has not been shelved.‘‘Earlier, the plan was to go in for expansion of the existing IAF facilities in the islands,’’ Mukherjee told The Indian Express, ‘‘but now that the existing facilities have almost been wiped out, the plans will have to be re-drafted. But the expansion and augmentation of facilities will take place. The new runaway, presently under construction, will also be built for taking heavier air traffic.’’ Mukherjee, who along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi was among the first VIPs to land in tsunami-hit Andamans, described the devastation he witnessed as ‘‘horrifying’’.He said that while a final assessment of damage to the Islands will only be known in about two days, there were some positive signals. ‘‘I have now received reports from the Navy that all equipment and ships which were in the Andamans area are safe and have not suffered any damage.’’He said that he did not want to elaborate on the number of types of craft the Navy had around the Andamans, since that was classified information. Mukherjee also described as ‘‘conjectures’’ reports that the IAF was henceforth declaring the Carnic base a non-family station. ‘‘We will take some practical steps to make the airbase safer for defence personnel. But that will be done at a later stage,’’ he clarified. ‘‘We are presently trying to make a correct assessment of the civilian casualties on the far-flung Islands and trying to reach food and water supplies to the stranded people and tourists. There are some remote islands which have still not been searched for survivors.’’The Government was already in touch with some international experts on tsunami predictions, Mukherjee said, adding that a firm scientific plan would soon be in place. ‘‘Since there were no scientific predictions that this would take place, we just have to learn our lessons from the event,’’ he said.
