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Is it a road? Is it a runway? It is both!
The government is mulling runway-cum-highways and has identified sites for these, road minister Nitin Gadkari has said
The Narendra Modi government is constructing a unique airport in the country where the airstrip would be used both as a runway as well as a highway, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has said.
Without sharing details, Gadkari said the airport is being built in Rajasthan. He was speaking at an event organised by the Air Passengers’ Association of India here on Wednesday.
“Once the road is closed”, the highway can be used for planes to take off and land, the minister explained, adding that the government is planning to build more such airports. “In hilly areas like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and in border districts we will construct more such airports with help from defence authorities and have identified certain sites,” Gadkari said.
Industry experts however questioned the feasibility of such projects. “An aircraft is not like a bus, which people can simply board when it stops. For an airport, you need a terminal, scan baggages, frisk people, you need ATC support. There are a whole lot of security issues involved,” aviation expert Rajji Rai felt.
