Itanagar, Nov. 30 (PTI): The Arunachal Pradesh government today said that the intention for construction of the greenfield airport at Hollongi near here has been very positive from day one.
Initially the proposed site was selected as Karsingsa but due to technicalities, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) had asked the state government to locate some other site for the airport, state Urban Development Minister Nabam Rebia told reporters here.
The minister informed that accordingly the second option site at Hollongi was selected. But again there were lot of controversies aroused for the site selection.
“On the request of the state government a central joint inspection committee came to Itanagar to study the feasibility of the site.
“The Central Technical Committee in its joint inspection report recommended Hollongi as the feasible site,” he disclosed and added that the state Cabinet in its meeting on July 18 this year approved the Central Technical Committee s recommendation for Hollongi as the feasible site for Greenfield airport.
“The acceptance and approval of the state government had been communicated to Civil Aviation ministry, DGCA and AAI,” Rebia said.
“A team from AAI on the directive of the Union Civil Aviation ministry will arrive here today on a six- day visit to the state to carry out detail study on all airfields in the state including the proposed Greenfield Airport,” Rebia said. On establishment of a Sainik School in the Nyishi belt, the minister informed that instead of a simple Sainik Schook, the state government is in advanced talks for establishment of a cantonment in the capital region.
“We have already identified 500 acres of land and the joint survey will be done shortly,” Rebia said adding, the matter was discussed during the recent visit of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who had approved it in principle.
“The cantonment will have referral hospitals, schools and other infrastructure,” the minister added.
Rebia said, the chief minister in a meeting on October 20 this year with the NES representatives promised to fulfil their demands and accordingly convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) on October 23 last which approved all the proposals and forwarded it for sanction under state infrastructure development fund (SIDF).
