NEW DELHI: Twelve national highways have been identified by the central government, including the Mohanbari-Tinsukia highway in Assam, for developing them into airstrips for landing of fighter aircrafts and military planes at the time of emergencies.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh along with Union minister for road, transport and highways Nitin Gadkari and chief of defence Bipin Rawat embarked on a Hercules C-130 J aircraft in a mock emergency landing on a national highway in Barmer in Rajasthan.
Apart from the Mohanbari-Tinsukia highway, the other stretches which have been identified in the Northeast region for emergency landing of aircrafts include the Hashimara-Tezpur route, Hashimara-Guwahati road and the Jorhat-Baraghat road in Assam.
The two ministers, during the mock drill, saw multiple aircraft operations on the emergency landing facility of NH-925 in Barmer. A mock emergency landing was carried out by the Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet at the ELF in the presence of the two ministers.
Rajnath and Gadkari said the work of a world-class national highway system is being done at a rapid pace under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that the highways will be from now of use for the Army.
The other places in India which are going to be developed for emergency landing of aircrafts are the Phalodi-Jaisalmer road and Barmer-Jaisalmer road in Rajasthan, Kharagpur-Balasore road in West Bengal, Kharagpur-Keonjhar road and near Panagarh-KKD, Chennai in Tamil Nadu and on Puducherry road, in Andhra Pradesh on Nellore–Ongole road and Ongole–Chilakaluripet road, Mandi Dabwali to Odhan road in Haryana, near Sangrur in Punjab, on Bhuj-Naliya road and on Surat-Baroda road in Gujarat, in Jammu and Kashmir in the Banihal-Srinagar road and Leh/Nyoma area.
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