At an estimated cost of 1043 Crores, the Greenfield Airport at Hollongi will be state-of-the-art.
Itanagar
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Monday revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the State on Feb 8 and will lay the foundation stone for Hollongi airport”, said Khandu while speaking at a cultural function held in Itanagar.
Itanagar is the only state capital in India not to have an airport. At an estimated cost of Rs.955.37 Crores (central share) and 87 Crore (state share) totalling 1043 Crores, the Greenfield Airport at Hollongi will be state-of-the-art which will propel economic development besides improving connectivity for the local population. Tourism will also see a huge boost with this project.
The Hollongi airport project had earlier ran into rough water due to controversies over the site selection. Initially, the site selected was Karsingsa and the Home Minister Shivraj Patil had also laid the foundation stone for this project on February 20, 2007.
However, owing to technicalities, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had asked the State Government to find some other suitable site for the airport.
The State Cabinet, in its meeting on July last year had approved the central technical committee’s recommendation for Hollongi as a feasible site for the airport.
Great joy for TEAM ARUNACHAL that decades old dream of having our own Airport at Capital has been approved today in PIB at an estimated cost of ₹1055 crores. I thank Honble PM Shri @narendramodi ji for his unstinted support in having this project see the light of the day. 💐💐💐 pic.twitter.com/QIqfan4QeM
— Pema Khandu པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་། (@PemaKhanduBJP) January 11, 2019
Later, the State Government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the State’s Urban Development Minister Nabam Rebia to study the feasibility of the site.
Accordingly on the request of the State Government, a central joint inspection committee visited Itanagar last year to study the feasibility of the site and recommended Hollongi, which is about 25 kms from Itanagar.
As a follow up to the review meeting held by Union Minister of State for Communications (Independent) Manoj Sinha on April 26, the State Cabinet also approved a policy for granting the Right of Way (RoW) for telecom infrastructure in the state.
The airport which would be built by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) over an area of 320 hectares when completed, will be able to accommodate narrow-body jets like the Airbus A321 in the first phase.
Khandu appealed to the people to cooperate and support the State Government in these endeavours and said the government or the Chief Minister alone cannot achieve everything.
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