India’s only expressway where fighter jets can land at night, named after a river; know complete details
Viral news: The network of expressways in India has grown and evolved significantly. This has led to the tremendous improvement of road connectivity in the country. From this network, some newly built ones have been designed with strategy-based defence capabilities. It allows them to double up as emergency runways for the Indian Air Force. Out of the expressways that contribute to the country’s development, there’s one expressway that stands out from the others.
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India’s growing network of expressways with defence capabilities
The development of express highways is an integral part of the infrastructural growth of a country like India. The country has formed multiple high-speed expressways over the last few years. This has led to the reduction in overall travel time among the major cities. Not just this, but the modern standards of engineering have helped some of the roads to support the military aircraft landings in case an unfortunate emergency happens.
The airstrip facilities exist on some expressways, but not all. While most of these allow the landing of fighter jets during the daytime, there’s one expressway that permits the landings during nighttime. The landings at night need advanced lighting systems, better navigation support, and specially reinforced surfaces.
Ganga Expressway
The Ganga Expressway is named after the river Ganga. It’s the first and only expressway in the country where the military’s fighter aircraft can land during the nighttime. The expressway runs through cities like Meerut and Prayagraj. Ganga Expressway is the fourth expressway that has been developed in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In addition, it consists of a night-landing airstrip, which has been built in Shahjahanpur on the route. It has also witnessed various night-landing trials by the Air Force jets successfully. These include Rafale, Mirage 2000, and Jaguar aircraft.
Importance of Ganga Expressway
The state of Uttar Pradesh has various expressway highways on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Unnao and the Purvanchal Expressway in Sultanpur. However, these can be used only during the daytime. The capability of the Ganga Expressway for night landing has contributed to the strength of India’s defense-based infrastructure. The almost 600-kilometre-long Meerut-Prayagraj Ganga Expressway is most likely to open soon for the public.