Jiwani Airport

Jiwani Airport (IATA: JIW, ICAO: OPJI) is situated 10 km away from the city centre of Jiwani in Balochistan. It is not a major airport of Pakistan. At this time, there is no scheduled service to or from the airport. Jiwani or Jwani is a town and commercial port that is located along the Gulf of Oman in the Gwadar District of the Balochistan province in Pakistan. It is located near the Pakistani border with Iran. With the Makran Coastal Highway now reaching Jiwani from Gwadar and also connecting Karachi, Jiwani is a place to be seen especially by those who are interested in observing history more closely.

Jiwani Airport

جِيوانى ہوائی اڈا

Jīvānī Havā'ī Aḍā
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorPakistan Civil Aviation Authority
LocationJiwani
Elevation AMSL186 ft / 57 m
Coordinates25°04′04″N 061°48′20″E
Map
Jiwani Airport
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
03/21 5,332 1,625 Composite material

Jiwani is 34 km from the Iranian border. Jiwani holds strategic importance in the region, located immediately adjacent to the shipping lanes to and from the Persian Gulf. This is the main reason that the town hosts a relatively large sized naval base and an mud track airport with a 5,500-foot runway which is still accountable to be operational.

Mangrove forest

The area around the bay includes an important mangrove forest extending across the international border, and is an important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, especially the endangered Olive Ridley and Green Turtles. Plans to grant fishing concessions and offshore drilling rights are potentially a threat to the wildlife of the area.

The population largely depends upon fishing. There are a number of export oriented fish freezing plants located in Jiwani.

World War II

Also known as RAF Jiwani, during World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command. It functioned as a stopover en route to Sharjah Airport, UAE or Karachi Airport, Pakistan on the Karachi-Cairo route. Visiting the barracks area of the base used during the World War II in Jiwani reveals many handwritten small stories and names of allied Pilots. There is a water system which is now abandoned for use but is a marvel of civil works and holds great uniqueness for meeting water requirements of the base. It used to store rain water in three stages in order to clean the water using its usual flow. The water was then pumped to the base and also up to the Victoria Hut which is nearly 5 km from the water tank system.

Victoria Hut

There is another story linked to Jiwani and that is that Queen Victoria planned to visit the area to watch the "sunset" and a hut was built for her, which is now known as the "Victoria Hut". Whether Queen Victoria visited or not, the Victoria Hut is still maintained by the Pakistan Coast Guards up to the present day.

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

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