The Gelephu Domestic Airport might become an international airport but not anytime soon. The Department of Air Transport (DoAT) plans to construct an alternate runway for the Paro International Airport in times of disasters and emergencies for now. The department is still working on a master plan for the airport.
Although the Gelephu Airport remains the best option for International Airport, the department says upgrading it to one has not been a priority. According to Karma Wangchuk, the Director-General of the DoAT, there is no immediate plans to develop it into an international airport. “Firstly, if we develop now, it will be wastage because we are not using the Paro Airport to its full capacity. We were using only about 30 per cent pre-Covid. So we need to have a master plan. We are working on the master plan for Gelephu,” he said.
He says the existing runway at the Gelephu domestic airport is in no capacity to land an airbus. So, the department plans to construct a new runway that will be used to facilitate air services during a disaster. The runway will be around two kilometres.
“We need to have an alternate runway, not an airport but a runway in case there is a disaster and Paro runway gets damaged. We don’t have any other alternate runways whereby the aids and other air services can come in. So just now we are just in the planning stage, just to have one runway where big, large body aircraft can land,” he added.
Gelegphu Domestic Airport located along the Gelephu- Sarpang highway covers about 750 acres of land. The Sarpang Dzongkhag recently provided a land replacement for more than 120 landowners in Samtenling Gewog. Some 30 landowners are yet to get the land replacement.
Gelephu Domestic Airport started its flight service in 2012. However, due to COVID-19, the airport has been closed for over a year now.
Sangay Chezom
Edited by Tandin Phuntsho
