Veer Savarkar International Airport

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About Veer Savarkar International Airport

Veer Savarkar International Airport, also known as Port Blair Airport, is a customs airport located 2 km (1.2 mi) south of Port Blair.
It is the main airport of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India.
It is named after the Indian freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
It is a civil airport, and its facilities are shared with the Indian Navy.
The terminal is managed by the Airports Authority of India, while the traffic is handled by the Indian Navy.

Key facts about Veer Savarkar:

Born in 1883 near Nasik in Maharashtra, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was popularly called Veer Savarkar.
He was the first to acknowledge the mutiny of 1857 as the first struggle for Independence and wrote the book ‘The History of the War of Indian Independence’.
He was a passionate promoter of Hindutva since childhood.
He was sentenced to 50 years in the cellular jail of Andamans, also known as Kala Pani, for revolting against the Morley-Minto reforms (Indian Councils Act 1909) in 1911.
After his release from jail, he worked on the abolishment of untouchability in Ratnagiri.
Serving as the president of the Hindu Mahasabha political party, he opposed the Quit India movement in 1942.
He founded the organizations Abhinav Bharat Society and Free India Society.
He was a critic of the Indian National Congress and its acceptance of India’s partition.
He was also a critic of Mahatma Gandhi and called him a ‘hypocrite’.

Q1) What is the Airports Authority of India (AAI)?

Airports Authority of India (AAI) was constituted by an Act of Parliament and came into being on 1st April 1995 by merging erstwhile National Airports Authority and International Airports Authority of India. The merger brought into existence a single Organization entrusted with the responsibility of creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure both on the ground and air space in the country. AAI manages 125 airports, which include 18 International Airport, 07 Customs Airports, 78 Domestic Airports and 26 Civil Enclaves at Defense airfields.