The significance of Sikkim's new airport at Pakyong
Finally, the last state in India without an airport has one now. On September 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled the dreams of the Sikkimese people by giving the state its first airport in Pakyong.
Built at a height of 4500 feet, Pakyong airport is one of the five highest airports in the country. It is located at Pakyong village, about 35km south of capital Gangtok.
Earlier, the nearest airport was 124km and a five-hour drive away in Bagdogra, West Bengal. The other option travelers had was to fly into or out of Paro airport in Bhutan.
After inaugurating the airport, Prime Minister Modi told a public gathering in Pakyong, "Since Independence, the country had only 65 airports till 2014. But in the last four years, we have built 35 airports. Earlier, the average was one airport every year, now the average is nine airports per year."
Pakyong airport is the 100th airport to become operational in India and the first greenfield airport in the North East region, in that it has been built from scratch.
"We are committed to make the North East an engine for India's growth story. For the first time since independence, stress has been on increasing both air and rail connectivity, electricity in remote areas of the North East and building infrastructure," said Prime Minister Modi.
Pakyong airport is being seen as a Himalayan engineering marvel.
The land for the airport was carved from the mountainside using massive geotechnical 'cut and fill' engineering works. These state-of-the-art soil reinforcement and slope stabilisation techniques were employed as traditional methods were considered unusable. This took care of the landslides upslope of the runway that were hindering construction activity.
Built at a cost of Rs 605 crore, the airport has a 1,700m × 30m runway and a 116m long taxi-way connecting it to an apron that can accommodate two ATR 72 aircrafts at a time.
The foundation stone for the airport was laid by former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in February 2009. Almost ten years later, the people of Sikkim have an airport they can call their own.
Direct connectivity to the state of Sikkim is likely to boost tourism as well as economic development.
Last year, close to 14 lakh domestic tourists and nearly 50,000 foreign tourists visited the picturesque Himalayan state. Airport connectivity will significantly raise the footfall. Greater economic activity owing to a jump in tourism will also lead to creation of more jobs for the youth in the state.
Militarily too, the operationalisation of Pakyong airport will prove extremely beneficial. Pakyong airport is situated approximately 60km from the Indo-China border. As a result, the Indian Air Force will have the ability to land military aircraft at the site, if needed.
With border tensions with China being a common occurrence in the region, Pakyong is being considered a strategic asset. In fact, the trijunction between China, India and Bhutan – the centre of the Doklam stand-off last year – is located only 54km south of Pakyong airport. Interestingly, the IAF was the first to land its Dornier 228 at Pakyong airport on March 5 this year for test purposes.
For now, it will be SpiceJet which will be operating daily flights to and from Kolkata and Guwahati from October 4. In view of the upcoming Durga Puja holidays, this is expected to give a huge fillip to tourism in Sikkim.
SpiceJet will operate Bombardier Q400 aircrafts with 78 seats on this sector. The fare on the routes has also been capped at Rs 2600, because the airline has been granted permission to operate under the government's ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, which aims to enhance regional connectivity and make air travel affordable.
Here's to more holidays in spectacular Sikkim!
Also read: Why India should engage in development work with China in neighbouring regions