Union Minister for Road Trasport and Highways – Nitin Gadkari reviewed the progress of the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai expressway (DME) that will reduce the travelling time between the two important cities. Gadkari, who spent a good amount of time at the expressway also tested the speed threshold of the road.
A video shows Nitin Gadkari on the co-driver seat of the Kia Carnival. He asks a few questions about the highway and how much speed it can handle. With the officials of the expressway in the car, Gadkari was trying to gauge if a fighter plane can land on the highway.
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He said on camera that there is enough space for a small plane to land on the highway. Then the car took a U-Turn and that is when the driver of the Kia Carnival pressed the throttle of the MPV.
The video shows the Kia Carnival reaching high speeds within a matter of few seconds. The Carnival also touched a high speed of 170 km/h. Since the expressway is currently not open and Gadkari’s convoy was the only few vehicles on the stretch it was safe to test the high speed.
The expressway will have a top speed limit of 120 km/h. However, it will be able to handle speeds much higher than that translating into quicker emergency services and also emergency plane landings if the need arises.
First highway landing strip inaugurated
Earlier this month, Nitin Gadkari and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an emergency landing strip at Gandhav Bhaskar section on National Highway -925 in Barmer, Rajasthan.
Indian Air Force landed the C-130J Super Hercules Transport Aircraft, which became the first transport aircraft to land on this new stretch. Indian Airforce also landed the Sukhoi-30 MKI and Jaguar fighter aircraft at the airstrip. They also did a touchdown drill where the plane flies without stopping after the touchdown.
The Emergency Landing Field (ELF) on the National Highway will act as an auxiliary military base in case of an emergency. This is built on a 3km stretch between the Satta-Gandhav area of the NH-925A. However, this is not the first time when a fighter plane landed on the highway in India.
Back in 2017. Indian Air Force demonstrated fighter plane landing on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway to show how such highways can be used to land small fighter planes in emergency situations.
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Longest expressway in India
The 1,380 km long expressway between Delhi and Mumbai will become India’s longest expressway. It is built at a cost of Rs 98,000 crore. Out of the total highway length, contracts for 1,200 km of roadwork is already awarded and the work is in progress. The highway will cut travelling time between the two capitals by almost 12 hours.
Featured image courtesy NewsTrend
