Highways for emergency landing? IAF jet makes a successful effort on Yamuna Expressway

New Delhi, May 21: IAF's Mirage 2000 made a successful landing on Yamuna Expressway near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh as part of trials to use the country's national highways for emergency landing.

The Agra-Lucknow expressway is set to become a road runway for the IAF jets, something which is first in the history of military aviation in the country.

The jet reportedly landed twice on the Yamuna Expressway, near the exit for Mathura, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally on May 25 and flag off his government's completion of one year in office.

The landings caused a huge traffic jam on the Yamuna Expressway.

The IAF, which had been planning to convert the nearly 3 km stretch into a road runway, had also recently proposed to the UP government after gathering details of the Agra-Lucknow expressway. The IAF will bear the cost of the project.

China, Pakistan, Sweden, Germany and Singapore already have road runways. Road runways come to use if airbases face any threat.

Pakistan Air Force had landed two fighter jets on the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway in 2010.

Pakistan had landed its jets on Islamabad-Lahore Motorway in 2010

The IAF received the first two upgraded Mirage-2000 aircraft from France last month under a Rs 10,000 crore deal. The IAF had purchased 49 Mirage 2000s in the 1980s.

Oneindia News