Kolkata: Sikkim’s first greenfield airport at Pakyong will be operational by 2017, which will provide a direct connectivity to the landlocked state and also help boost tourism, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Jitendra Singh said.
“By 2017, the greenfield airport at Pakyong will be functional. It got delayed because of the rehabilitation process. Once the airport is functional, the state will have direct connectivity,” Singh told Gulf News over phone.
Built at a cost of Rs3 billion (Dh162 million), the Pakyong airport is being constructed by Airport Authority of India (AAI) on a 200-acre land. The airport is being built at an altitude of 4,700 feet which will be one of the five highest airports in India. Presently, the nearest airport to Sikkim is located 124 kilometres away at Bagdogra in West Bengal.
The minister also informed of connecting the landlocked state via rail network. “There is also a plan to connect Sikkim with the country’s rail network and after the present government took over under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this will be the third Northeastern state after Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh to be brought on the rail map of India.”
The 52.7-km-long Sevoke-Rangpo railway line is estimated to be built at a cost of Rs41.9 billion and will have the distinction of having 14 tunnels and 28 bridges.
“This railway line will offer an exclusively picturesque and scenic journey while passing through the foothills of the Kanchenjunga mountain range and the Teesta river valley,” the minister added.
However, this project which was supposed to be completed by December-2015, is stuck in bureaucratic tangle despite of being a priority project for the central government. Former railway minister Mamata Banerjee laid the foundation stone for the project in October 2009.
The project will take up around 86 hectares of forest land, which needs clearance from the Union Environment ministry. But before that, under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the project needs to be cleared by local gram sabhas (rural bodies). However, in this case, the Kurseong and Kalimpong divisions of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council do not have panchayats.
“This project is of strategic importance to the country as the state shares a border with China. However, the main problem is India’s Constitution exempts Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council area from having a panchayat (rural elected bodies). But as per the Forest Rights Act, 2006, permission from panchayat is required for diversion of forest area.
However, in the absence of a panchayat and a go-ahead from them, we have not been able to clear the project,” said an environment ministry official. Also approval from the ministry of tribal affairs is pending, leading to the delay.
Sources indicate that the prime minister’s office has stepped in and has asked ministries to solve this constitutional riddle at the earliest so that the project can be commissioned. “Modi has asked ministries to solve this riddle and start work at the earliest,” said an officer of the prime minister’s office.
