‘Work on Greenfield Airport to start from March’

Itanagar, December 21 (UNI): With almost all the ground work cleared for construction of Greenfield airport at Itanagar, the construction work for the proposed project will begin from March, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said. The minister announced this during the NCP national convention at New Delhi yesterday, informed state NCP deputy legislative party leader Bamang Felix in a statement today.
The proposal for construction of the Greenfield airport under the Prime Minister's package had recently got a unanimous thumbs-up from the local people during a public hearing, organised by the State Pollution Control Board. Felix, who along with his party colleagues and leaders from the state, is attending the NCP national convention, welcomed the announcement and expressed confidence that it would be implemented in letter and spirit, which would spring-jump Arunachal Pradesh on to the aviation map of the country.
He also informed that party president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, in his address, specifically assured to provide all cooperation and support for development of Arunachal, especially in the ministries held by NCP leaders in the UPA government. Urging the state governments to do more to control the spiralling food prices, Pawar reportedly said that they should take the issue of price rise very seriously to protect the interest of consumers.
At the convention, the NCP legislators from the state reiterated that they were a part of the UPA, which needs to be extended to the state also. They maintained that it was up to the Congress government in the state to consider the NCP legislators as equal partners and treat them as such. They also made fervent appeals to rest of the ministries, not headed by NCP at the Centre, to treat them as integral part of the UPA and provide incentives from their respective ministries for development of the state.
Meanwhile, Felix informed that he is leading an exposure tour of panchayat leaders from his assembly constituency Nyapin on the sidelines of the NCP national convention. The panchayat leaders that included not less than 12 women members are at the moment on a sightseeing spree around the national capital and adjoining cities such as Agra and Jaipur.