Jan. 6: Three years after the foundation stone was laid for an airport in Sikkim, the Union civil aviation ministry has promised an early clearance of funds that had choked work on the project at Pakyong, a subdivision 20 km from the hill state?s capital.

According to a communique from the office of the resident commissioner, Sikkim House, New Delhi, Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel has assured Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling of personally pursuing the project with the central ministries of finance, defence and environment and the Airports Authority of India.

Chamling, who is in Delhi, called on Patel this afternoon to request for an early resolution of the funds problem, which had stalled the work.

The proposal for the airport had been sanctioned by the former BJP-led NDA government after which land was acquired and the work handed to the airports authority by the Sikkim Democratic Front government. The foundation stone was laid at Pakyong three years ago by then Vice-president Krishna Kant.

The project, however, bit the dust with the promised purse failing to arrive and certain mandatory clearances remaining pending.

When then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Sikkim in 2003, he promised additional funds for the completion of the airport. But with a change of guard at the Centre, the clearance was delayed.

Underscoring the need for an airport in a state heavily dependent on tourism, Chamling also requested the Centre for an 11 to 13-seater helicopter. The state now has a five-seater chopper that is flown by the Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation.

The nearest airport from Gangtok is in Bagdogra on the fringes of Siliguri, about 140 km away.