The IAF has been in talks with the Uttar Pradesh state government from May, ever since it was decided that the expressway was the ideal place for a runway to come up where combat jets could take off or land in emergency situations. The Lucknow-Agra Expressway is the longest greenfield e-way coming up in India, and is expected to cost Rs 13,000 crore.
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The IAF has asked the state to acquire more land on the sides of the highway, in order to install an air traffic controller (ATC), a taxi-way and a parking area.“We will acquire more land along the sides of the 5km road runway and we will write to the ministry of defence to pay for it,” said Navneet Saigal, the chairman and chief executive officer of the expressway.
Air vice-marshal Rajesh Issar and squadron leader Keshab had met Saigal on Thursday and finalised the stretch.
This particular segment of the e-way was considered ideal as there are no dividers, flyovers or underpasses near it. It also won’t have any electricity poles, masts or mobile phone towers near it. The IAF will bear the cost for the project.
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“The designers from the IAF have met with our engineers regarding the specifications for this stretch,” said Saigal. Many countries including China, Pakistan, Sweden, Germany and Singapore boast of road runways. These runways gain special importance during hostile situations, especially if airbases are crippled. In May, the IAF landed two Mirage 2000s in UP — one in Saifai village’s airstrip and one on the Yamuna Expressway.
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“The designers from the IAF have met with our engineers regarding the specifications for this stretch,” said Saigal. Many countries including China, Pakistan, Sweden, Germany and Singapore boast of road runways. These runways gain special importance during hostile situations, especially if airbases are crippled. In May, the IAF landed two Mirage 2000s in UP — one in Saifai village’s airstrip and one on the Yamuna Expressway.
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.
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