NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Northeast’s first Emergency Landing Facility by landing aboard an Indian Air Force C-130J aircraft on a 4.2-kilometre stretch of the Moran Bypass along National Highway-37 in Assam’s Dibrugarh district, marking a significant expansion of India’s military and disaster-response infrastructure in the region.
The Prime Minister arrived at the facility from the Chabua airbase, where he had landed earlier in the day, and boarded the C-130J to demonstrate the operational capability of the newly constructed strip. Built at a cost of Rs 100 crore in coordination with the Indian Air Force, the facility is the first such dual-use infrastructure in the Northeast designed to support emergency landings and take-offs of both military and civilian aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of up to 74 tonnes, enhancing rapid deployment capacity for both defence and disaster-relief missions.
Located in Upper Assam, less than 300 kilometres from the Line of Actual Control with China, the converted highway stretch significantly strengthens India’s operational flexibility along its eastern frontier. With similar emergency landing facilities concentrated largely in western and northern sectors, the Moran facility represents a strategic eastward expansion of critical defence infrastructure and improves response capability in a region vulnerable to both security contingencies and natural disasters.
Describing the project as a matter of immense pride for the Northeast, the Prime Minister said in a post on X that the facility would play a vital role in strengthening national security while also enabling faster response during emergencies such as floods and earthquakes, which frequently affect the region.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma termed the project a paradigm shift in securing the Northeast, recalling the region’s historical vulnerabilities and highlighting the transformation of road infrastructure capable of supporting aircraft operations. During his visit, the Prime Minister also inaugurated the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Setu, a six-lane extradosed prestressed concrete bridge over the Brahmaputra connecting Guwahati with North Guwahati. Constructed at a cost of Rs 3,030 crore, the bridge is expected to reduce travel time between the two sides to approximately seven minutes and strengthen regional connectivity. Designed for high seismic resilience, the structure incorporates base isolation technology using friction pendulum bearings, high-performance stay cables, and a Bridge Health Monitoring System to ensure long-term structural safety and real-time performance monitoring.
At Lachit Ghat in Guwahati, the Prime Minister inaugurated and flagged off projects worth over Rs 5,450 crore aimed at enhancing connectivity, digital infrastructure, higher education, and urban mobility across the Northeast.
