IAF wants highways for emergency landings
The Indian Air Force has asked National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to share details about upgradation of highways that can be used for both landings and take-offs. Stretches would be developed in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab on priority basis as these states share boundaries with Pakistan. Out of these, eight highways were aleady identified in states of Rajasthan and Punjab.
A four-seater private aircraft made an emergency landing on a highway in Madhya Pradesh due to rough weather. The aircraft, owned by NRI businessman Sam Verma, landed at Betul-Nagpur National Highway 69 and blocked the traffic for 30 minutes. Verma said that the plane was supposed to land on his private runway near the four-lane highway but strong winds forced him to do otherwise.
Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) was set to build a two-km long special stretch on the upcoming Agra-Lucknow expressway. It would be used for the landing and takeoff of Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter and cargo planes in case of an emergency. Vishwas Deepak, chief engineer of UPEIDA, said that the stretch at expressway would be a high value asset.
At present, countries such as Germany, Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, Singapore, Czechoslovakia have dedicated stretches on their expressways and highways for airplanes to land and take off in case of an emergency.
Indian Air Force successfully landed a French Dassault Mirage-2000 on the Yamuna Expressway. The drill was one of the trials to see how many highways can be used for emergency landing of defence aircraft. The plane landing operation was done with active support from the government of Uttar Pradesh, Yamuna Expressway Authority, toll authorities of JP Infratech and the Mathura police.
An IAF official said that location of landing strips depend on the distance from IAF base and distance from populated areas. He said that their plan was to upgrade highways and bypasses with long straight strethces of 4-5 kms. He added that these can be very useful in case of war or to move the aircrafts from the official base to avoid major damage.
