The reinforcement wall on the project is 80 m height, which is one of the tallest reinforcement walls in the world.
 

 He told that construction work on Rs 300 crore cost state first airport being constructed by Airport Authority of India at 200 acre land around 30 km south state capital Gangtok, is in full swing and added that operational flights for the airport will  be commissioned by the March 2015.

 

He said that this airport having 180 mts long airstrip will facilitate the flights of ATR-72 planes and include hangars for two small ATR aircraft.

 

Presently, the nearest airport to Sikkim is located 124 kilometres away at Bagdogra in West Bengal.

 Dhungel said that it will open alternative connectivity route to state as at present the state has to depend solely on NH 31 for connecting to rest of world.

 

He said that the airport will also facilitate the free movements to state from rest of the country  when the National Highway 31 is blocked by protestors and agitators from time to time.

The airport consists of  a terminal building measuring 2380 square metres with a capacity of 100 passengers, a car park for 80 vehicles and a fire station cum Air Traffic Control Tower.

Dhungel said that Belfast-based geotechnical company Maccaferri has won an international award fo carving out airport from the mountainside using massive geotechnical  'cut and fill' engineering works.

The airport is being built  at an altitude of 4,700 ft with deep valleys at both ends of the runway  featuring a 1700 metre long, 30 metre wide runway and a 116 metre long taxiway connecting it to an  apron measuring 106 metres by 76 metres.

He said that state government will consider demand of additional land  for construction of the greenfield airport.

 Dhungel requested the Union tourism minister to  provide central assistance of Rs 20 crore for upgradation of helipads in the state in conformity norms with the DGCA. 

 

He said that state government has constructed helipads at Namchi, Palling,  Dalapchen, Lachung, Ravong, Dodak ,Yangang and Mangan and added that all these  helipads needed  to be upgraded for meeting  modern safety standards  and told that at present Burtuk helipad,  4 km from state capital  Gangtok, fully conforms to the safety standards fixed by DGCA .

Dhungel suggested for providing security of the airport to the state police to curtail expenditure on operational cost and added that the Sikkim Police are fully equipped trained and competent to handle the security of greenfield airport.

He said that the state government will provide all the logistic and other facilities to the AAI for timely completion of construction work and added that necessary fire, rescue and other modern facilities will be provided by the state government on operational of the airport

Sikkim tourism secretary C. Zangpo was also present in the meeting