Air strips on 28 highways for emergency landing
Premium- The infrastructure will be developed by the road ministry along with the defence ministry
NEW DELHI : Three months ago, an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed on the Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh, demonstrating yet again the potential of highways to facilitate such landings. Now, the central government is gunning for more such airstrips for emergency landing on highways across the country, as part of the PM Gati Shakti National Mission.
The Union road ministry has identified 28 locations on key and strategic operational national highways to build landing strips for fixed-wing aircraft, two government officials aware of the development said. Portions of national highways will converted as airstrips to facilitate landing of defence aircraft and certain civilian aircraft in emergency situations. A strategy paper prepared by the ministry said such infrastructure will be developed in collaboration with the defence ministry. Mint has seen a copy of the paper. “A total of 28 locations have been strategically identified for development of emergency landing strips. Out of these 28 locations, civil works are complete for 1 location and civil work is in progress for four locations," the paper said. These are mostly in states that share borders with other countries.
Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said on 9 September that emergency landing facilities will be developed in Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Assam.
Queries emailed to a road ministry spokesperson remained unanswered till press time. The IAF’s fighter jets and transport planes first conducted mock landings on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in 2017, demonstrating their ability to facilitate emergency landing. Now, the Union government is converting it into a national mission. The ministry will also ask the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to build helipads at several of these locations for civilian and military movements.
The Gati Shakti mission aims to provide multi-modal connectivity, with a new digital platform bringing together 16 ministries, including road and railways, for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
The cost of such infrastructure development is negligible considering the advantages, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. The additional cost of such infrastructure development may be shared with the defence ministry, they said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Gadkari last year inaugurated the country’s first emergency landing strip on a national highway at Gandhav-Bhakasar section on NH-925 in Barmer, Rajasthan. In that section, NHAI developed a 3-km section of the highway as an emergency landing facility (ELF) for the IAF. Similar lengths would be used for future projects that will now be rolled out on a mission mode. Such additional landing strips will help IAF planes in times of hostilities, according to analysts. “This is a wonderful idea that will not only give India strategic advantage to effectively counter any provocation from across the border but also enhance the multi-utility feature of Indian highways as such infrastructure could also come handy for disaster management also. Also, with the kind of growth Indian aviation industry is seeing, such infrastructure could be a big support in emergency situations," said independent infrastructure analyst Vaibhav Dange.
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