The Donyi Polo Airport near Itanagar has become the first greenfield airport in Arunachal Pradesh to receive an all-weather licence, allowing operations even under adverse weather and night conditions.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who shared the news on X, called it a “milestone” for the state.

Donyi Polo Airport – Arunachal’s first greenfield airport – puts us firmly on the national aviation map, he said, noting the upgrade will improve round-the-clock movement in the region.

The airport’s operational upgrade comes amid a broader infrastructure push in Arunachal Pradesh, as India matches China’s military and logistical build-up across the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Beijing claims large parts of Arunachal Pradesh as “Zangnan” or “south Tibet,” and has in recent years renamed 89 places in the state — a move India has rejected as “baseless and politically motivated.”

India is also building a 11,000 MW hydropower project on the Siang River, as an answer to China’s proposed 60,000 MW dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet — the upstream of the Brahmaputra.

"China’s proposed 60,000 megawatt hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo, the upstream of the river Brahmaputra in Tibet, will not be a dam but a ‘water bomb’ to be used against India and other lower riparian countries," Arunachal Pradesh MP Tapir Gao said on April 8, 2025.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju called the project both a "strategic necessity" and a "transformational opportunity" for local development. “China has the capacity to divert rivers and build 1,000-km-long tunnels. That’s the scale of the threat we are preparing for,” Rijiju said.

India has also accelerated the construction of strategic infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh to counterbalance China’s posture in the Tibet Autonomous Region, where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is upgrading several airbases including Shigatse, Lhasa Gongkar, and Nyingchi, all near the Indian border.

Some other initiatives include, Tte Rs 40,000 crore Arunachal Frontier Highway, a 1,637-km road skirting the LAC and connecting 12 districts across the state, the Sela Tunnel, the world’s highest bi-lane tunnel, linking Tawang and Tezpur, vital for military logistics and a $1 billion hydropower investment plan, with 12 new power projects cleared to boost energy and security capacity in the region.

In 2023, New Delhi inaugurated a series of roads, bridges and tunnels across Arunachal to strengthen both civilian access and military mobility — moves that have drawn strong protests from Beijing.

China’s growing presence along the LAC is not limited to dams and airbases. It has been expanding the electric grid to support PLA deployments, allowing quicker movement and enhanced surveillance across difficult terrain.

India’s response has been to root infrastructure in both strategic necessity and local empowerment, from all-weather airports to mountain tunnels and high-capacity dams.