Photo courtesy- Kiren Rijiju twitter

Arunachal Pradesh’s Hollongi airport cleared by Finance Ministry! In another boost for air connectivity in the North-East, Arunachal Pradesh’s capital Itanagar will finally have air connectivity. Recently, the Finance Ministry has approved the proposal for the construction of a greenfield airport at Hollongi. The airport at the picturesque Hollongi will be 25 kilometres away from the state capital Itanagar. The cost of the ambitious project is estimated at Rs 1055 crore. Talking about the proposed airport, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the project. “Finally, the long pending dream of having our own Airport at Capital of Arunachal Pradesh has been approved,” he tweeted.

Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu thanked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, MOS Aviation Jayant Sinha for the “unstinted support and prompt response”. Talking about the upcoming airport at Hollongi, CM Khandu said that the airport will have state-of-the-art infrastructure. He also asserted that this will propel economic development besides improving connectivity for the local population and emphasised that tourism will also see a huge boost with this project.

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Last year, MoS for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that the proposed Hollongi airport will be better than the recently opened Pakyong airport in Sikkim. The new greenfield Hollongi airport will likely have a 2,200 metre runway, he said. The larger runway and better topography will allow for jet aircraft to land and take-off, he said. Based on the demand, flight services from Hollongi may even be extended to international destinations, he said. A greenfield airport is one in which the facility is made from scratch without destroying any existing structure.

In 2018, the state government gave its approval to the recommendation of a panel for building a greenfield airport at Hollongi. The report was subsequently submitted to the Centre. The report had details about the status of ownership of land measuring 948.56 acres at Hollongi for setting up of the airport.