Fighter plane to land on highway from Jammu to Tamil Nadu, Gujarat to Bengal

- Serves as a runway option built on the highway for the Air Force when the airbase is destroyed. Highway air strips can be used during emergency rescue in times of disaster in the country.

New delhi date. Thursday, September 09, 2021

Preparations are in full swing to convert the National Highway into a landing air strip in case of emergency or for rescue or relief purposes. The length and design of all these air strips are tailored to accommodate everything from large fighter aircraft to aircraft.

According to sources close to the Ministry of Road Transport, special attention is being paid to safety protocols ranging from closing the highway on both sides while landing the flight so that the transport is not disrupted. Two such air strips on the National Highway have been completed in Andhra Pradesh and one more air strip is being constructed on the highway in West Kashmir besides West Bengal. Tenders have been issued for construction of 4 such air strips on the National Highway. It is learned that tenders have been issued for some while plans are afoot to acquire land for others.

Where will the air strips be?

Jammu and Kashmir: Work is underway on the Banihal-Srinagar road near Avantipura. The site will be visited on the Jammu-Udhampur route.

Sangrur district of Punjab will visit the site to dogala dirava village on NH-71. The tender will be held within a month at Dabli on Sirsa Marg in Haryana. Kalpana Chawla Medical College in Hisar will have a tender in a month.

Uttar Pradesh: A site visit will be made to NH24 near Moradabad. Apart from that, there will be a site visit between Lucknow-Rae Bareli and NH 27 near Ayodhya.

Rajasthan: Spots on Phalaudi-Jaisalmer and Barmer-Jaisalmer routes have reached the final. Is to be tendered. While construction work is underway in Gandho-Bakasar road.

Gujarat: A tender has been issued for construction near Datrana in Rajkot. Work order has been placed in Dwarka-Mallya. The work is not going on as the land has not been acquired. Site visit will be done in Bhuj-Anjar route. Site visit will be on Surat-Mumbai route.

Andhra Pradesh: Construction is underway near Nellore. Construction work is underway in Vijayawada-Angor. The site will be visited on the Rajahmundry-Vijayawada route.

Tamil Nadu: Tender has been held in Puducherry. Did not allow land acquisition. The site will be visited on the way to Madurai.

West Bengal: Work is underway in Balasur-Kharagpur. Digna will have a site visit.

Bihar: There will be a site visit near Islampur-Kishanganj.

Asamah has been selected to Sibsagar Jorhat. Will be tender. Barkaghat has location final, tender will be held. Naugaon Senbhog Marg NH 27 will be tendered.

Odisha: A site visit will be made on Khagadpur-Kanjawar route.

Why Air Strips Are Becoming : During a war the enemy country always tries to destroy the important airbases of the country by targeting them so that it cannot land and take off the country's fighter jets. Serves as a runway option built on the highway for the Air Force when the airbase is destroyed. Highway air strips can be used during emergency rescue in times of disaster in the country.