When Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the nearing completion of the Northeast’s first highway-based emergency landing strip, located on the Dibrugarh–Moran stretch, it signalled more than just an infrastructure milestone. It marked a paradigm shift in the strategic architecture of India’s eastern frontier, where defence preparedness, disaster resilience, and civil aviation mobility are being fused into a single strip of tarmac.

Planned to be operational by October 2025, the 4.2-km highway stretch will serve dual roles: as an emergency airstrip for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and as an auxiliary landing site for civilian aircraft. The project is being executed by the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL), with the IAF actively involved in inspections to ensure compatibility with advanced fighter aircraft, including Sukhois and Rafales.

What you are seeing in this picture is not just a highway; it is North East’s first Emergency Landing Facility 🛬📍 Moran, Assam pic.twitter.com/nNsYvtw4ax

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) June 29, 2025

The idea of integrating roadways with aviation capabilities is not new globally. Germany pioneered it during the Cold War, and countries like China, Pakistan, Sweden, and South Korea have all developed road–runway hybrids. However, in India, this concept is still relatively novel, with only a few operational strips like the one on........

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