Government Mulls Use of Highways as Aircraft Runways

Gadkari said, "Along with Defence Ministry, we are thinking on a proposal. We are making our national highways of cement and concrete. We can use them as airports and are identifying sites. The vehicular traffic will be stopped when an aircraft will be landing and once it leaves, the vehicle traffic will resume."

The proposed arrangement will include the usage of India's highway network to handle take-offs and landings for both, civilian and military aircrafts. However, discussions with the Defence Ministry are still on since several such sites can be near the country's border areas.

Though details about such possible sites are thin at the moment, Gadkari mentioned pockets in Arunachal Pradesh that can benefit from such an arrangement. What makes the north-eastern state a suitable candidate for the scheme is the low traffic which will only aid flight movements.

However, this scheme leaves one very important question to be answered: can Indian roads take it? Gadkari said that a bulk of the new highways in India are being built with cement and concrete, which can comfortably take such loads. In fact, the Indian Air Force test-landed a Mirage 2000 fighter jet on the Yamuna Expressway near Delhi in 2015 as part of a drill for emergency landings on national highways.

Gadkari further explained that separate holding areas can be created along a highway to allow the aircraft to taxi to after landing, and can come back on the highway for take off after de-boarding and boarding. He added that such an arrangement will be very cheap as compared to constructing a complete airport.