Itanagar Airport (

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: HGI,

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: VEHO), also known as Hollongi Airport and officially named as Donyi Polo Airport, is a domestic airport serving

Itanagar Itanagar () is the capital and largest town of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The seat of Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the seat of government of Arunachal Pradesh, and the seat of Gauhati High Court permanent bench at Naharla ...

, the capital city of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

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. It is located at Hollongi, situated south from the city centre, in the

Papum Pare district Papum Pare district (Pron:/ˌpæpəm ˈpæɹɪ or ˈpɑ:ɹeɪ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. As of 2011, it is the most populous district of Arunachal Pradesh (out of 20). History The district was ...

. It is built by the

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, over an area of 320 hectares. The airport is the 16th airport of

Northeast India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

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laid the

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

for the airport on 9 February 2019. Construction was started on 15 December 2020, and was inaugurated on 19 November 2022, with flight services started by

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and

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from 28 November 2022.

History

In 2007, the

Government of Arunachal Pradesh The Government of Arunachal Pradesh also known as the State Government of Arunachal Pradesh, or locally as State Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and its 25 districts. It consists of an execu ...

had chosen Banderdeva, situated 25 km from Itanagar, as a suitable location for the project. The then Home Minister,

Shivraj Patil Shivraj Vishwanath Patil (born 12 October 1935) is an Indian politician who was the Minister of Home Affairs of India, from 2004 to 2008 and 10th Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996. He was Governor of the state of Punjab and Administra ...

, laid the foundation stone on 20 February 2007 for the project. However, the technical committee of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) rejected the site and recommended Holongi as an alternative site for the project in 2011. AAI had recommended Hollongi on grounds of operational safety, lower costs of construction and ease of future expansion. The Hollongi site lay on flat ground, had better usability in poor weather and offered scope for easy construction and expansion. The Banderdeva site, on the other hand, was surrounded by hilly terrain and permitted operation of aircraft from only one direction. The cost of construction was estimated at ₹ 980 crore for Banderdeva, as against ₹ 650 crore for the Hollongi site. The differences between AAI and the state government caused a dispute that resulted in the project getting delayed. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) eventually stepped in to put an end to the dispute in July 2012, and the Hollongi site was finalised.

Features

*The airport has a single 2,300 metre runway oriented east–west in the first phase, to serve

narrow-body aircraft A narrow-body aircraft or single-aisle aircraft is an airliner arranged along a single aisle, permitting up to 6-abreast seating in a cabin less than in width. In contrast, a wide-body aircraft is a larger airliner usually configured with mul ...

and can be extended to 2,800 metres to land

wide-body aircraft A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is . In the typical wide-body economy c ...

. The

airport apron The airport apron, apron, flight line, ramp, or tarmac is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehic ...

measures 160 metres by 115 metres linked to the runway by two taxiways. It has night landing facilities and navigation facilities like

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and

Instrument Landing System In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

Airlines and destinations

Construction

*After the creation of the

Detailed Project Report A project plan, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), is: "...a formal, approved document used to guide both ''project execution'' and ''project control''. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning ass ...

(DPR) by AAI, and the laying of the project's foundation stone, the contract for construction work of the project was awarded to Dineshchandra R. Agrawal Infracon Private Limited (DRA Infracon), who was given a period of 30 months to complete the airport, in February 2020.

Gallery

The airport has an ample infrastructure and facilities to accommodate commercial operations

References