The Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) international Airport is all set to undergo a unique revamp. According to a TOI report the airport runway will soon have a national highway running under it. This is will India’s first ever airport runway with such a unique feature.
The runway will soon be extended to 4,075m from the current 2750m which will enable the LBS International Airport to host big cargo and Boeing planes. NH-56 which will run under the airport runway will be converted to a four-lane road. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has already given a thumbs up to the project.
The alignment of the Varanasi-Lucknow highway will be kept intact.
NHAI project director (Varanasai) S B Singh said that this underpass will solve the long-pending issue of deciding the alignment of NH-56, which is being converted into a four-lane road, as quoted by TOI. The proposal for NH-56 expansion has been in process for over a decade and was approved by the UPA government in 2013 but not much headway was made.
AAI’s proposal was neglected till 2015 until AAI sent a letter to the Uttar Pradesh government on March 27, 2015, through the director of civil aviation (UP), seeking the required land.
LBS is located 26km from Varanasi. The development of both the Airport runway and the National Highway will go on simultaneously.
