“The resolution was passed by the state government of Arunachal Pradesh to name the airport as ‘Donyi Polo Airport, Itanagar’, which reflect the people’s reverence of the Sun (Donyi) and the Moon (Polo) to symbolize the traditions and rich cultural heritage of the state," the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a press release.
The Centre had granted an ‘in-principle’ approval for development of Hollongi greenfield airport in January 2019. The project is being developed by Airports Authority of India (AAI) with the help of central government and the Arunachal Pradesh government at a cost of ₹646 crore.
With a 2,300 metre runway, the greenfield airport is the first in Arunachal Pradesh to have the capacity to land big aircraft. The airport can accommodate 300 passengers during peak hours with eight check-in counters. It is energy-efficient and will run on renewable energy.
The airport will also support night landing as it is equipped with homing and landing aides like VOR, ILS and Satellite based procedures for landing.
The Hollongi airport is the state’s third after Pasighat and Tezu airports and only airport in the capital city. The central government had earlier accorded its approval for setting up of the “greenfield airport" under the `Capital Connectivity Scheme` to build up fixed wing air connectivity facility to the state capital.
The Donyi Polo airport in Itanagar is northeast India`s 16th airport. Currently, there are 15 operational airports in the north-eastern region - Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur, Lilabari, and Rupsi (Assam); Pasighat and Tezu (Arunachal Pradesh); Agartala (Tripura); Imphal (Manipur); Shillong (Meghalaya); Dimapur (Nagaland); Lengpui (Mizoram) and Pakyong (Sikkim).
