The Indian Air Force successfully performed the “Land and Go” operation on part of the gang highway in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh 2. Instead of landing 3.5 kilometers created on the highway can serve as a makeshift track, allowing fighter flights to land during the day and night.
The development of such infrastructure with dual use (military and civilian) could be useful if the indication conflict after the opening of the Sindoor operation on Wednesday, in which India led military stations in terrorist camps in Pakistan. Creating such dual use infrastructure is not a new-one part of the National Mission PM Gati Shakti to provide multimodal connectivity.
According to people who know, the Ministry of Road Transport and Motorways maintained the best and most strategic highway in India in a state of readiness to effectively face any action from the entire limit by providing emergency landing facilities for military aircraft.
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Almost half a dozen of emergency landing facilities have already been developed on highways, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense there are about two dozen others – some of which are close to the international border. According to one of the above, 28 strategic places for the provision of highway infrastructure for military aircraft were identified.
The cost of such an infrastructure is negligible with respect to the benefits, they said that people quoted above and added that additional costs could be shared with the Ministry of Defense.
VAIBHAV Dange, an independent infrastructure expert, said: “Our infrastructure is fully equipped to handle any eventuality and support the army in case such need.
“It is an amazing idea that not only will give India a strategic advantage to effectively face any provocation from the whole border, but also suits disaster management,” he added.
Question sent to the Ministry of Road Transport and Motorways remained unanswered
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The strategic document previously submitted by the Ministry of Roads said that places for emergency landing facilities on national motorways have already been identified and that such infrastructure will be developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense.
In 2022, the Ministry of Roads stated that 28 seats were strategically identified for the development of emergency landing strips. Of these, civic work was completed in one place and took place in four others, the ministry said at that time. The pace of work has increased since then and at least half a dozen such landing is now ready or close.
The ministry did not reveal the exact location of these landing strips because of their strategic importance, but most of them are in states that share borders with other countries.
At the end of 2021, the Ministers of Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the first emergency landing belt of the country on the national highway in the Gandhav Bhakasar section on the NH-925 in Burmer in Rajasthan. Developed on 3 km of highway, it was to serve as an emergency landing device for IAF.
Previously, aircraft landing on Indian roads was introduced in 2017, when IAF fighter aircraft and aircraft carried out false landing on the Lucknow-Agra motorway.
In addition to landing facilities for aircraft, the Ministry of Road also asks Nhai to build helpeds on several of these places, which could also facilitate the movement of civilians and military staff.
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(Tagstotranslate) Sindoor operation
