The Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully conducted an overnight trial run on the 3.5 km-long emergency landing facility near Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Srinagar-Jammu national highway, officials said.
Jammu and Kashmir has become the first UT to have an emergency landing facility on the highway.
Official sources said five IAF helicopters, including the US-manufactured Chinook and Russian made Mi-17 helicopter, landed on the Wanpoh-Sangam stretch of the national highway linking Kashmir with the rest of the country in the early hours today.
During the drill, the helicopters landed at the stretch and carried an exercise of picking up troops lying on the ground.
The airstrip on the highway also has parking slots for fighter Aircraft and also an Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower.
The authorities had made elaborate security arrangements and installed radars, CCTVs and other technical equipment to ensure a smooth trial.
The facility in south Kashmir would be used by the IAF for multiple scenarios such as war, floods, rescue operations, airdrop of relief materials, transportation of stranded people during disasters and other emergency needs.
Due to the trial run, the traffic department had banned the movement of heavy motor vehicles on the highway from 4 AM on Monday to 7 AM on Tuesday. The Light motor vehicles (LMVs) were diverted to the old national highway during this period.
With this, Jammu and Kashmir became the first Union territory to operationalise an Emergency Landing Facility (ELF). Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are the three states where these emergency landing strips are currently operational.
The work on the 3.5-km emergency landing strip was started in 2020 and completed late last year as part of a programme initiated by the IAF along with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for the creation of ELFs at different locations across the country.
The ELF drill is to showcase the synergy and liaison between civil agencies, such as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), district administration and state police, and the air force towards the conduct of complex multi-faceted activities.