IAF fighter jets engage in special drill on Agra-Lucknow Expressway

Lucknow Oct 24 (IANS) Sukhois Jaguars and Mirages of the IAF did a touch down and take off drill on a four-km stretch of the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of people lined up to watch the thrilling spectacle.

While more than a dozen of the 16 planes that landed were fighter planes the remaining were carriers.

The four-km stretch had been strengthened during construction for the purpose an official informed IANS.

In November last year a similar drill involving eight fighter planes had been conducted a few days before the inauguration of the 302-km Expressway by the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

A special US plane C-130 was also involved in Tuesday s drill officials informed.

The two-hour drill officials said was to train the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters and personnel to deal with emergency situations like an aerial attack or destruction of a base which would require immediate touch down and take off from other places to retaliate an informed source clarified.

The Agra-Lucknow Expressway has been thrown out of bounds for vehicular traffic for the past few days in view of the drill.

--IANS
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