IAF fighter jets to conduct touchdown exercise on newly developed Purvanchal Expressway in UP on Nov 16

On Friday, the Indian Air Force’s three Jaguar conducted trial run on the Expressway. 

New Delhi: Among the Indian Air Force’s platforms fighter aircraft like Jaguar, Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi-30MKI will conduct touchdown exercise on a 3.1-km-long airstrip developed on the Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on November 16.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief guest at the launching ceremony of the Rs 42,000-crore expressway project, will land on the expressway in an IAF transport aircraft US-made C-130 J Super Hercules. 

After formal inauguration of the Expressway, two Jaguars, two Mirage 2000 and two Sukhoi will carry out touch and go drill on the Expressway, which the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adtyanath said that this project would help boost economy in the eastern part of the state. The inauguration ceremony will be concluded with three Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team performance. 

On Friday, the Indian Air Force’s three Jaguar conducted trial run on the Expressway. 

The Purvanchal Expressway, which connects western and eastern Uttar Pradesh, is a 340-km-long. It will connect Lucknow to Mirzapur and reduce the travel time between the two cities by four hours. The expressway passes through Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh and Mau. 

According to an UP government official, it will have 7 major bridges, 7 railway overbridges, 114 minor bridges and 271 underpasses. 

Notably, Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to have two expressway-based airstrips. The one on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway and the other on the Purvanchal Expressway. 

Expressway airstrips are designed to let fighter jets land and take off in an emergency. Previously, the Indian Air Force investigated the Yamuna Expressway and the Agra Expressway.