Pakyong Airport: Only Visuals, No Action

Nestled amidst the clouds at 1400 metres above sea level, with a breath-taking view of the beautiful Pakyong valley amidst the Himalayas, is Pakyong Airport in Sikkim.

- Amartya Sinha

The airport is often touted as a 21st century engineering marvel: it was constructed by carving out land from the mountainside by using the geotechnical ‘cut and fill’ method. State-of-the-art geogrid soil reinforcement and slope stabilisation technologies were used to support the entire structure as traditional retaining walls and embankments could not be employed due to the uneven topography of the area.

The brand new piece of infrastructure with a passenger terminal and a 1700 metres long runway was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on September 24, 2018. With the inaugural flights to Kolkata and Guwahati being launched soon after, the airfield brought hopes and dreams for the locals.

The enthusiasm, however, was short-lived. Due to its location, the airport witnesses heavy to very heavy downpours and foggy conditions throughout the year, thus leading to a fall in visibility conditions across the landing approach route. As the project was constructed under the VFR (Visual Flight Rules) category, there is a mandatory norm of minimum of 5 km visibility from the aircraft to the touchdown area. Between October 4 and December 17, 2018, of the 74 days that the airport had been in service, it handled only 46 landings and take-offs. On some occasions, the aircraft hovered over Pakyong before being diverted to Bagdogra airport for landing.