MoRTH identifies 22 NHs for aircraft landing

In its quest to create emergency landing facilities for fixed wing aircraft across all major national highway corridors, the transport ministry has identified 22 stretches in various parts of the country. In this connection, an inter-ministerial panel is being constituted to achieve the objective. It has been decided to constitute an inter-ministerial coordination group (IMG) of the ministry (MoRTH), Ministry of Defence and the Indian Air Force and the MoRTH will be primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways. The transport ministry is shortly going to convene a meeting with the defence ministry to firm-up the proposal. In addition, the government is also keen to augment regional connectivity covering tough and rough terrain areas in the north-east and other hill states in the Himalayan belt, as these facilities will also be used for fixed aircraft landing in hours of crisis. In the new civil aviation policy, the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) has been mooted that provides for various concessions to airlines, sources claimed.