Greenfield Donyi Polo
Airport, Itanagar, Arunachal
The ‘land of rising sun’,
Arunachal Pradesh will soon be witnessing the inauguration of Tezu Airport.
The Tezu airport in Lohit
district of Arunachal Pradesh has been re-developed by the Airports Authority
of India (AAI) under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) — UDAN (Ude Desh ka
Aam Nagrik) at a cost of Rs 170 crore. This airport will connect the beautiful
Tezu town with the rest of the country.
The development and
modernisation work at the airport includes the construction of a New Terminal
Building having an area of 4,000 sq m, a Fire Station-cum-ATC Tower and the
extension of runway. The new Terminal Building will be capable to handle 300
passengers during peak hours.
Presently, the state has
four airports at Pasighat in East Siang district, Tezu in Lohit district, Ziro
in Lower Subansiri district and Donyi Polo airport in Hollongi, close to the
state capital of Itanagar.
Pasighat Airport
Popularly known as the
‘Land of the Dawn-lit-Mountains’, Arunachal Pradesh is India’s remotest state
and the first Indian soil to greet the rising sun.
However, despite attaining
statehood 36 years ago in 1987, the quest for a civilian airport remained a
distant dream for the state until 2018 when Arunachal Pradesh became the last
of the eight north-eastern States to get on India’s commercial flight service
map.
The history was created
when the first commercial flight of the Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air
India, landed at the Pasighat airport in Arunachal Pradesh on 21 May 2018.
Pasighat, about 570 km
northeast of Guwahati, is the headquarters of East Siang district and the
State’s oldest city. Earlier, in order to reach Pasighat, people had to travel
from Guwahati or Itanagar for almost a day in the hilly terrain.
The Pasighat airport was
one of six operational advance landing grounds (ALGs) in Arunachal Pradesh and
was mostly used by the Armed forces.
It was virtually abandoned
after the China-India war in 1962 until the Indian Air Force took it over in
2010.
The airport was inaugurated
in August 2016 with the landing of a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet. A civilian
terminal was built in 2017 and a test landing of Alliance Air’s commercial
flight was carried out in April 2018.
The airport has also a
strategic significance as it is just 300 kms away from the Indo-China border.
Tezu Airport
Tezu in the eastern
Arunachal, is the headquarters of Lohit district. It is the nearest town to
Walong, where a legendary battle between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place
between 16 October to 16 November 1962.
The city entered onto the
aviation map of the country in August 2021, when the first commercial flight of
Flybig Airlines flew to Assam’s capital Guwahati. The new airport has made
everything much more accessible and connected, especially in the eastern side
of the state.
The commercial airport in
Tezu has also firmed up India’s strategic space by smoothening transport to
several high-altitude districts near the India-China border.
Donyi Polo Airport
Arunachal’s first
full-fledged airport at Hollongi, 15 km from Itanagar, the state capital was
inaugurated on 19 November 2022 and has been operational since 28 November
2022.
The state government has
named the airport as "Donyi Polo Airport" to reflect the
long-standing indigenous respect for the Sun (Donyi) and the Moon (Polo) among
the populace.
The airport, also the
first greenfield airport in Arunachal Pradesh, has been developed in an area of
more than 690 acres at a cost of more than Rs 640 crore.
The new airport has
connected the capital city with an airport – earlier no airport existed in
vicinity of Itanagar, the closest one being Lilabari Airport in Assam’s North
Lakhimpur district which was at a distance of 80 km and takes around three
hours to reach by road.
Also, the new airport is
suitable for landing of larger aircrafts — bigger commercial flights wouldn’t
land at Pasighat and Tezu. With a runway of 2300 metres, the airport is
suitable for the operations of Airbus-320 (A-320) category of aircraft, thereby
providing direct flights to metro cities as well as international destinations.
To put this in
perspective, the new airport will be great for tourism in the central belt of
the state, hitherto limited to the western and eastern belt.
Connecting NorthEast
The northeast has been an
important component of air connectivity expansion.
in 2013, there only nine
airports in the northeast, which has now increased to 17. This means close to
about eight new airports have been built in the last ten years, including all
the four airports in Arunachal.
This dramatic increase in
the aerial connectivity of the northeast with the rest of the country, is what
was termed as "real Bharat Jodo" by Minister of Civil Aviation (MoCA)
Jyotiraditya Scindia on the sidelines of the inauguration of air connectivity
from Hollongi airport on 20 November.
What lies ahead
The emergence of multiple
airports in Arunachal is a testimony to how focus on the region has aided its
connectivity, creating shared prosperity.
The string of airports is
expected to be a game-changer for the landlocked state, which shares a border
with China to the north and northeast, Myanmar to the east, and Bhutan to the
west.
The improvements in
connectivity is significant in view of the statements by Beijing’s officials
asserting China’s territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh.
“The disputed territory in
the eastern sector of the China-India boundary, including Tawang, is
inalienable from China’s Tibet in terms of cultural background and administrative
jurisdiction,” said Dai Bingguo, former Special Representative of China to the
border talks with India.
Howeevr, the continuing
focus on aviation infrastructure development will not only provide the
necessary support for the strategic preparedness for the forces in the
mountains, but will also augur well for aspiration of local community .
Hopes of improved
connectivity, tourism and economic growth are riding on them.
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