New Delhi: A C-130 transport aircraft with special forces commandos and about 19 other frontline fighters from Indian Air Force's inventory touched down on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway on Tuesday morning, in its exercise to use highways as landing strips.
A patch of Lucknow-Agra Expressway doubled up as a landing strip on Tuesday, a part of the government's plan to identify and develop a number of highways for use as runways during emergencies.
The IAF will have 3 Jaguars, 3 Mirages and 3 Sukhoi-30 jets on display at the Expressway on Tuesday.
The exercise is being carried out on the stretch of the expressway near Bangarmau in Unnao district, around 65 km from Uttar Pradesh's capital, Lucknow.
The air force exercise started with a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft making an assault landing with Garud commandos. The commandos will also be extricated from the same spot as the final act of the exercise when the C-130 will make a landing for the second time.
The event is being organised by the IAF, together with the state government.
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.
Indian Air Force jet planes lands on Lucknow-Agra expressway near Unnao pic.twitter.com/wMo1n9BdXT— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 24, 2017
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.
(With IANS inputs)
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