The structure will measure 35.3m in height and will be situated on the grass area in front of the DHL depot.

It is intended the old tower within the terminal building will be demolished once the new one is built and operational by 2010.

Transport Minister David Anderson will seek Tynwald approval in July to spend £6.5m on the scheme. The department gave a presentation on the proposals to Tynwald members on Wednesday.

Mr Anderson said: 'The old control tower dates back to the Second World War and its basically past its sell buy date and not a very good environment to work in and for high tech equipment we need to have in the control tower these days.'

Avionic equipment for the tower is included in the scheme's cost.

Airport director Ann Reynolds said a control tower needs a visual control room to oversee the taking off and landing of aircraft, but the airport also required a radar room.

Not having one would make it 'less efficient'.

She explained the current control tower – which stands at a height of just under 19m – gave rise to some operational issues.

From the tower people cannot see over some maintenance sheds at one end of the runway, but instead closed-circuit-television is used.

Also lighting columns used at night need to be higher to shed more light on more of the surface, but their height is restricted because they must remain lower than the tower.

The working environment also presents issues, including that staff need to travel up and down four flights of stairs to use the toilet, she said.

'If there had to be on job training, interview or appraisal have to ask people to leave rest room, but controllers need to have the rest room as there are only so many hours they can work,' said Mrs Reynolds.

Other options about what to do about the control tower were looked at, including, doing nothing; building the control tower without the approach radar service; refurbishing old tower but look to adapt another building. But theses would lead to the radar service having to be bought in and refurbishing the tower. Adapting another building would mean the airport would have two old buildings and the cost would be greater, said Mrs Reynolds.

If Tynwald approves the spending for the tower, the 60 week project would start in August and be finished by November 2009, with the intention of the tower being operational by the first quarter of 2010.

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