The Dzongu valley in North Sikkim (in picture by Prabin Khaling); and (above) a Pawan Hans helicopter takes off from the Burtuk helipad in Gangtok. A chopper ride from Gangtok to Dzongu takes around 25 minutes

Gangtok, Nov. 23: Three helipads have been proposed for the remote villages in Dzongu to serve as bases during natural calamities and to boost eco-tourism.

Nearly Rs 5 crore will be needed to set up the helipads on half an acre each.

The necessity for a landing place for choppers was felt during the September 18 earthquake, when nine villages in the Lepcha reserve was completely cut off for almost a month as roads were destroyed in landslides.

The government was forced to air-drop relief material in the absence of helipads. Later, the relief choppers managed to land on makeshift helipads to evacuate injured villagers.

Chief Minister Pawan Chamling during his tour of Dzongu on October 30 had announced to set up helipads at Gor, Shipgyer and Tingvom in Upper Dzongu, North Sikkim.

Officials of the state tourism and civil aviation department said detailed project reports on the proposed helipads in Dzongu were ready and would be submitted to the state government soon.

“The DPRs are ready and we have to submit them to the state government so that they can be sent to the Union government for funding. We have to see if the funds come from the NorthEast Council or the ministry of tourism. We are exploring the funding resources,” said Prakash Chettri, the superintendent engineer (south, east and north districts) of the tourism department.

Chettri said the estimated cost of building the three helipads would come to around Rs 5 crore. “We need half an acre each for the helipads,” he said adding that it takes 12 months to construct a helipad once funds are released.

The objective of building the helipads in remote villages is to promote tourism in destinations which have abundant natural beauty and mystic culture of the ethnic Lepcha tribal community but are not connected by good roads, said Chettri. The helipads will also help in conducting rescue and relief operations and immediate evacuation of people from these far-flung areas in the event of natural calamities and emergency situations, he added.

The villages of Gor, Shipgyer and Tingvom are around 90km from Gangtok. The nearest urban settlement is Mangan, the administrative headquarters of North district. It normally takes 20-25 minutes from the Burtuk helipad in Gangtok to reach to these villages in a helicopter, said Tejpal Pradhan, manager (operations) of Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation under which the Pawan Hans chopper operates in Sikkim.

Now there are 13 helipads in Sikkim. Of them, three belong to the army and the ITPB, one owned by the NHPC and rest are under the Sikkim government. But there are no helipads in Dzongu, where outsiders, including those from other parts of Sikkim, are not allowed to settle.

It is the isolation of the Dzongu hamlets scattered among dense forests that posed major obstacles during the relief operations in the aftermath of the September 18 earthquake. A remote destination with few roads, Dzongu has few landmarks to identify each village. The first stumbling block for pilots flying relief was absence of aviation coordinates.

Finally, the co-ordinates were provided by the state forest department, which had used GPS and GIS to map wildlife areas in Dzongu.

The tourism stakeholders are excited about the helipad plans.

“Helipads will help in a major way to promote ecotourism in Dzongu. If the stakeholders there come up with good homestays, I am sure many urban people will love to fly straight to Dzongu,” said Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim (TAAS) president Lukendra Rasaily.

The TAAS, the apex body of tour operators in Sikkim, had already adopted Dzongu for promotion of eco-tourism and homestay concepts.

“Dzongu is also a secluded area and I am sure once the helipads come up, we will have celebrities wanting a break and privacy coming here,” said Rasaily.