Arunachal approves greenfield airport project in Hollongi

The Arunachal Pradesh cabinet has approved the recommendation of the committee constituted to study the feasibility of construction of a greenfield airport at Hollongi near here for submission to the Centre.

The proposed airport site is located 25 kms away from state capital Itanagar.

The cabinet, which met yesterday under Chief Minister Pema Khandu, discussed in detail the report submitted by the committee and approved its recommendations, an official release said.

The report details the status of ownership of land measuring 948.56 acres at Hollongi for construction of the airport as sought by the Centre.

The greenfield airport project had earlier ran into rough weather due to controversies over the site selection.

Initially, the site was selected as Karsingsa but 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 site for the airport.

On the request of the state government, a central joint inspection committee visited Itanagar to study the feasibility of the site last year and recommended Hollongi.

The state cabinet, in its meeting on July 18 lat year had approved the central technical committee's recommendation for Hollongi as the feasible site for the airport.

Later, the state government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Urban Development Minister Nabam Rebia to study the feasibility of the site.

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.