ITANAGAR, Jan 11: The dream of having an airport in the state capital is on its way to becoming a reality after the union finance ministry on Friday cleared the proposal for the greenfield airport in Hollongi after detailed deliberations on each item of the project proposal.
The steering committee of the civil aviation ministry had cleared the proposal for the airport on 28 December last year, after receiving the environment clearance from the environment & forests ministry.
“At an estimated cost of Rs 1043 crore (Rs 955.37 crore central share and Rs 87 crore state share), the airport will be a state-of-the-art infrastructure which will propel economic development besides improving connectivity for the local population and boosting tourism,” the chief minister’s office (CMO) said in a statement.
“The ministry after very detailed discussion approved the land acquisition rate as proposed by the committee and endorsed by the state government. However, the PIB noted that it shall be the responsibility of the state government to hand over the land free of all encumbrances to the Airports Authority of India and set a target to have the airport ready within 4 years,” it said.
“It is matter of great joy for Team Arunachal that today the decades-old dream of having our own airport has been realized. I thank the prime minister and the government of India for their unstinted support in having this project see the light of day,” the CMO quoted Chief Minister Pema Khandu as saying.
