IAF aircraft to land on Agra expressway next week

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Going ahead with its plan to use highways as landing strips during emergencies, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will conduct an exercise next week where a number of aircraft will land on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, officials said on Wednesday.

According to Defence Ministry officials, the operational exercise will be carried out on October 24, and a number of fighter and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force will land and takeoff from the highway.

The event is being organised by the Indian Air Force, together with the Uttar Pradesh government.

The aircraft that will join the exercise include An-32 transport aircraft, and leading fighter jets in the IAF invetory including Su-30, Jaguar and Mirage 2000.

On May 21, 2016, a Mirage-2000 fighter plane of the IAF had touched down on the Yamuna Expressway as a display of capability to land fighter jets on highways.

According to officials of the Road and Transport Ministry, 12 highways have been cleared for similar landing operations, with three of those connecting Maoist-affected areas in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, which also witness vagaries of nature like floods and cyclones almost every year.

These strips would be used in case of emergencies such as disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, as well as in situations of war or conflict.

The efforts that go in preparing a strip of a highway for landing of a military aircraft includes thickening the layer of tar, and at the time of operation, a make-shift air traffic control, safety services, rescue vehicles and bird clearance parties have also to be there.

In 2016, Minister of Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari had announced the project and the formation of a committee to come up with specifications for highway stretches that can double up as airstrips.

The committee will look into details like feasibility of the stretches, and their length and breadth, among other factors.

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