PM Modi To Launch Arunachal’s First Greenfield Airport

Arunachal’s First Greenfield Airport: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today inaugurate Arunachal Pradesh’s first brand new airport, ‘Donyi Polo Airport’, at Holangi, Itanagar. The Airports Authority of India has developed the Donyi Polo Airport at an estimated budget cost of Rs 645 crore. He will also dedicate the 600 MW Kameng Hydropower Station in West Kameng District to the nation at the function.

PM Modi will inaugurate the airport today and depart for Varanasi and Gujarat from there, officials from the state’s civil aviation department said. In 2019, Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Greenfield Airport in Hollongi and inaugurated the modernized Tezu Airport. According to an official statement, the terminal at Hollongi was built at an approximate cost of Rs 955 crore with an area of ​​4100 square meters. It has a maximum handling capacity of 200 passengers per hour.

In Arunachal Pradesh, there is no airport, the country’s easternmost state. The nearest facility is at Lilabari Airport, 80 km away in the North Lakhimpur district of Assam. There are some forward landing sites in the state, including at Pasighat and Tezu. Airports in five northeastern states, namely Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland, have seen flights take off for the first time in 75 years.

The airport has been developed in an area of ​​more than 690 acres, at a cost of more than Rs 640 crore. With a 2,300m runway, the airport is suitable for daytime operations in any weather. “The airport terminal is a modern building that promotes energy efficiency, renewable energy, and resource recycling. Donyi Polo Airport will be the third operational airport in Arunachal Pradesh, bringing the total number of airports in the region to 16 northeast. From 1947 to 2014, only nine airports were erected in the Northeast. In a short span of eight years since also, the Modi government has erected seven airports in the northeast,” the official statement read.

Flights connecting Hollongi, which is about 15 km from Itanagar, with Mumbai and Kolkata will operate every day except Wednesday. A weekly flight service connecting Hollongi with Kolkata on Wednesdays will start on December 3, IndiGo’s director of strategy and revenue Sanjay Kumar said recently.

This is in line with the airline’s vision to improve connectivity in the Northeast and the flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travelers who are constantly seeking new and affordable flight options to access destinations that are known for their tourist attractions, he said. said.

In addition to IndiGo, Akasha and Flybig airlines have also expressed interest in starting flight services from Donyi Polo airport, AAI CEO Dilip Kumar Sajnani said. Flybig and Indigo have contacted the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and have expressed interest in starting the flight services. The AAI is hoping to bring them on board to start operating, he said recently.