Urban Transport Infrastructure November 2018 Urban Transport Infra November 2018 | Page 39

Airport & Aviation
PAKYONG AIRPORT: All you need to know about
Sikkim's first and India’s 100th Airport
S
ikkim's first airport, Pakyong
was inaugurated by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on
24 th
September
2018.
Pakyong Airport is also one of the
five highest airports in India. PM
Modi reached the airport via road to
inaugurate it.
PM Modi, during the inaugural
event, said, "I would like to
congratulate all engineers and
workers for the construction of this
airport.
They
have
done
a
commendable job."
PM Modi added that Pakyong was
the 100th airport to be opened in
India. He also said that Pakyong
Airport would minimise the travel
duration of hours into minutes. Here's
all you need to know about Sikkim's
first-ever airport:
• Situated near Gangtok, Pakyong
Airport is also a greenfield airport.
A greenfield airport is a facility
that
reflects
environmental
qualities. These projects use
undeveloped/empty fields and
construct them from scratch. A
greenfield denotes that a project
WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM
lacks any constraints imposed upon it
by
prior
work
or
existing
infrastructure.
• Pakyong project is one of the
tallest reinforced soil structures in
the world.
• Constructed by Airport Authority
of India (AAI), Pakyong has a
1,700 m long and 30 m wide
runway. Pakyong can accomodate
two ATR 72 aircraft at a time.
• The terminal building of Pakyong
can house 100 passengers and
provides a parking facility for 80
cars. It also houses a fire station
and an Air Traffic Control Tower.
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•
•
•
An IAF Dornier 228 landed at the
surface of Pakyong Airport on
March 5, 2018, for the first time.
However, the first landing by a
commercial flight -- a SpiceJet
Bombardier plane -- took place on
March 10, 2018.
Pakyong will also serve as an
important facility for the Indian
Army as the airport lies only 60 km
away from India-China border.
IAF will be able to land military
aircraft at the airport as well.
Spicejet started operating its first
commercial flight from Pakyong to
Kolkata in October 2018.
Urban Transport Infrastructure | November 2018