With agile combat employment a priority for the Indian Air Force, India has been working to inaugurate more emergency landing facilities on its national expressways and highways.
On 14 February 2026 India’s prime minister inaugurated the latest in a series of highway airstrips, intended to allow Indian combat air units to deploy to less predictable and less vulnerable forward bases, often closer to the ‘action’.
Agile combat employment (ACE) is a priority for the Indian Air Force, as attacks on its major air bases have been a major feature of its wars with Pakistan. In the recent Operation ‘Sindoor’, a major military campaign conducted from 7 to 10 May 2025 against targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, India successfully targeted six selected forward air bases, up to 100 miles (161 km) inside Pakistan’s borders, but the success of these attacks underlined the vulnerability of India’s own airfields.
The Indian Air Force has long practised rapid deployment from its wings and air force stations to a network of forward base support units at secondary airfields. This allows for the rapid reinforcement of Western Air Command in the event of elevated tensions with Pakistan, for example.
However, since 2014 a network of ‘road runways’ has been developed as part of a wider strengthening of military infrastructure, particularly where adjacent to India’s land borders. These highway strips are reinforced to cope with the impact of fast jets and are often provided with the amenities necessary to support air operations for sustained periods.
It has been reported that a total of 13 locations have been chosen for development of these ‘emergency landing facilities’ (ELFs) on national highways and national expressways, although just seven have been identified so far. An Indian National Expressway is typically a six-lane, access-controlled, inter-city toll road, with a central reservation or median, and intended for speeds of up to 120 km/h, while National Highways are designed for speeds of up to 100 km/h and usually have four lanes, but may not have a median.
These ELFs are intended to allow the operation of Indian Air Force aircraft during conflict or natural disasters and can support operations by Rafale, Mirage 2000, Tejas, Jaguar, Sukhoi Su-30MKI combat aircraft and by C-130J and An-32 transport aircraft.
ELFs have been activated in the border states of Rajasthan (in the country’s north-west, bordering Pakistan), the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (north, between Pakistan and China), Uttar Pradesh (north-east, adjacent to Nepal and China), and Assam in the east, bordering Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. The state of Andhra Pradesh in the south-east also hosts ELFs. In June 2016 Nitin Gadkari, the then minister of road transport and highways, announced that the government was considering developing ‘road runways’ for commercial operations as well. This idea seems to have gone nowhere.
The first ELF was built on a stretch of the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh, at a cost of INR 130 crore (INR 1.3 billion, or USD 15 million). It was successfully tested on 21 May 2015.
Another ELF, the Bangarmau Airstrip, with a 3.5 km runway, was built on a stretch of the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Uttar Pradesh. This has been used frequently since 2015, when it was first tested.
The first ELF based on a stretch of National Highway (rather than Expressway) was the Barmer strip, on the NH925 in Rajasthan, opened in 2021. Another 3.5 km ELF was opened on a stretch of NH44 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district on 2 April 2023. Trials involved two Chinook, two Dhruv, and one Mi-17 helicopters, as well as Su-30MKI and HAL Tejas fast jets.
Sukhoi Su-30MKI, BAE Systems Hawk, Antonov An-32, and Dornier 228 aircraft conducted landing trials on another ELF on the NH16 near Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh on 18 March 2024. The 4.1 km strip was 33 m wide and was constructed by the National Highways Authority of India.
A 3.5 km long airstrip on the Ganga Expressway near Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was tested (using Su-30MKI, Mirage 2000, Rafale, MiG-29 and Jaguar fast jets, C-130J and An-32 transports, and Mi-17 V5 helicopters) on 2 May 2025. This was an Indian ELF with a night landing capability.
Most recently, on 14 February 2026, a new ELF was activated on the Moran Bypass of National Highway 37 in the Dibrugarh district of Assam. The 4.2 km airstrip was inaugurated by a C-130J carrying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who commented, “It is a matter of immense pride that the Northeast gets an emergency landing facility. From a strategic point of view and during times of natural disasters, this facility is of great importance.”
