Indian Air Force (IAF) has approached the Jharkhand government to acquire and revive the airfield in Chakulia, 75km from Jamshedpur, a move that effectively nixes ambitious efforts to turn the 500-plus acres into a bustling international airport that the steel city has been yearning for.

State civil aviation secretary Ratan Kumar said the proposal had come from Kalaikunda Air Force Station in Bengal in November-end and the government had sounded the East Singhbhum district administration on the same in December.

"Kalaikunda wants to develop the Chakulia airstrip, which is in our possession, into an alternative base station. The IAF has sought permission for acquisition of land and has said that they may allow commercial flights with curbs," he said.

A state civil aviation team, led by its director Captain Surendra Prasad Sinha, is expected to visit Chakulia after the panchayat elections for a survey of land status.

"We have asked the IAF to give us some time to inspect the airstrip, which has been lying abandoned for more than four decades. The survey will be done once the East Singhbhum administration is done with rural polls and is free to guide the team," Kumar added.

According to sources in the district administration, survey of the abandoned 515.44 acres on both sides of 2.5-kilometre-long runway was necessary to rule out human habitation. "The land has remained unused for decades. Squatters are not unlikely," one of them said.

Kalaikunda Air Force Station located near Kharagpur in West Midnapore district of Bengal is home to IAF Squadron 18, a crucial component in the country's air defences. Aircraft based there are involved in guarding the strategic Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Bay of Bengal.

The Chakulia airstrip, on the other hand, was built by the British during World War II in the 1940s. Later, it was used during the 1962 war with China and the 1971 war with Pakistan for the liberation of Bangladesh.

The abandoned airstrip was under the Union civil aviation ministry till 1995 and came under the state government in 2001. In 2013, the aviation and defence ministries approved flexible use of military airspace to set up a mechanism in allowing commercial flights albeit through restricted airspace.

Curiously, however, Jamshedpur MP Bidyut Baran Mahto, enthused by promises of help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, met Tata Steel vice-president (corporate services) Sunil Bhaskaran last week to propose two new sites to for the international airport, one of them being the Chakulia airfield.

Confronted with the IAF wish, the MP insisted that an air defence base in Chakulia wouldn't be a setback for the proposed airport.

"The second site in Kandra comprises more than 550 acres. It is forestland and can be acquired without hassles. Also, I will meet chief minister Raghubar Das (who is in charge of civil aviation in the state), seeking permission for commercial flights from Chakulia even if it becomes an air force station," Mahto added.