Eight fighter jets to land on Agra-Lucknow expressway

AGRA: A group of eight fighter jets will descend on Agra Lucknow expressway on the day of its grand opening on November 21, which is also the eve of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's 78th birthday .The aircraft will then take off and do aerobatics in the skies.

UP expressways industrial development authority (UPEIDA) CEO Navneet Sehgal told TOI, “All arrangements have been made to conduct the grand inauguration.A group of eight fighter jets will land and then take off from newly-constructed expressway .“

The 302-km expressway , which is chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's dream project, has been completed in a record time of 22 months and has cost Rs 13,200 crore. It will get operational by December. The longest expressway in the country is currently a six-lane project, expandable up to eight lanes.

The expressway which will pass through Unnao, Kannauj, Etawah, Mainpuri and Firozabad, will reduce the travel time between Agra and Lucknow to just four hours, nearly half of what it takes now. Two farm mandis, a logistics hub, an IT City and a residential town are planned to be built along the expressway.

Sehgal along with Air ViceMarshal Rajesh Issar and other senior officers of Central Air Command inspected the expressway stretch in Bangarmau of Unnao district on Saturday .

“Indian Air Force planned the special air show as a tribute to the rapid completion of the expressway before its 26-month deadline,“ Sehgal said. The expressway was planned and constructed in a way that in case of emergency or war, IAF could land its fighter planes using the road as a runway.

“A dedicated 2-km stretch has been built for war-like emergencies on the expressway , though we have also ensured that eco-system on the stretch is not disturbed,“ said an official of UPEIDA.