Airport type Public Location Holongi 08/26 7,546 | Serves Itanagar Elevation AMSL 328 ft / 100 m 7,546 2,300 | |
Owner Airports Authority of India | ||
Itanagar Airport is a greenfield airport project that will be constructed at Holongi in the Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is being built by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) over an area of 320 hectares. When completed, the airport will be able to accommodate narrow-body jets like the Airbus A321 in the first phase. The project will also include a five-star hotel and convention centre. As of August 2014, the AAI has completed the Master Plan of the airport and is working on the Detailed Project Report.
History
In 2007, the State Government had chosen Banderdeva, 25 km from Itanagar, as a suitable location for the project. The then Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, laid the foundation stone on 20 February 2007 for the project. Also, the technical committee of the AAI too recommended Karsinga as an alternative site for the project in 2011. AAI had recommended Karsinga on grounds of operational safety, lower costs of construction and ease of future expansion. The Karsinga site lay on flat ground, had better usability in poor weather and offered scope for easy construction and expansion. The Holongi 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 Rs. 980 crore for Holongi, as against Rs. 650 crore for the Karsinga 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 Karsinga site was finalised.
The airport will have a single 2,300 metre runway oriented east-west in the first phase, to serve Narrow-body aircraft and can be extended to 2,800 metres to land Wide-body aircraft. The airport apron will measure 160 metres by 115 metres linked to the runway by two taxiways. The airport will have night landing facilities and navigation facilities like DVOR and Instrument Landing Systems.