During the height of World War II, amidst Japanese incursions across Burma and threats to Calcutta, the Royal Air Force transformed the city’s wide Red Road now Indira Gandhi Sarani into an emergency airstrip. This 60-foot-wide boulevard slicing through the heart of the city, adjacent to Maidan and the Victoria Memorial, witnessed regular RAF fighter landings and take-offs, offering critical aerial response capabilities.

This makeshift runway, carved into a main urban artery, preceded modern Indian Air Force drills on expressways and underscores the improvisation of wartime logistics. The road's name, “Red Road,” stems from the red dust that rose beneath speeding vehicles yet, during the war, it took on a deeper hue, marked by purpose and peril.

The Red Road’s use as an airstrip exemplifies Calcutta’s wartime significance as a strategic Allied hub in the China-Burma-India theatre. Beyond parades and public gatherings, this urban thoroughfare played a vital military role, embodying resilience and innovation in the face of adversity.