Arunachal Pradesh: Transport Network

 

The main mode of transport in Arunachal Pradesh is done through roads.

Roads:

Arunachal Pradesh State Transport Services (or APSTS) is the state-owned road transport corporation. APSTS is running daily bus servicess from Itanagar to most district headquarters including Tezpur, Guwahati in Assam and Shillong in Meghalaya as well as Dimapur in Nagaland. As of 2007, every village has been connected by road thanks to funding provided by the central government. Every small town has its own bus station and daily bus services are available. All places are connected to Assam, which has increased trading activity. An additional National Highway is being constructed following the Stillwell Ledo Road, which connects Ledo in Assam to Jairampur in Arunachal. Work on the ambitious 2,400 km two-lane Trans-Arunachal Highway Project announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 31 January 2008 on his maiden visit to the state, was scheduled to be completed by 2015–16 but now due to political and social reasons it may take another decade.

In 2014, two major highways were proposed to be built in the state: East-West Industrial Corridor Highway, Arunachal Pradesh in the lower foot hills of the state and 2,000-kilometre-long Mago-Thingbu to VijaynagarArunachal Pradesh Frontier Highway along the McMahon Line, alignment map of which can be seen here and here.

In the below table we can see the major National Highways network in Arunachal Pradesh:

 

National Highway Length in Arunachal Pradesh
Sl. No. NH No. Route Length (Km.)
1. 52 From Assam border-Pasighat-Dambuk-Roing-Paya-Tezu-Wakro- Namsai- upto Assam Border 310
2. 52A From Assam border-Itanagar- upto Assam border 42
3. 153 From Assam border-Myanmar border (Still Well road) 40
4. 229 The highways starting from Tawang passing through Bomdila, Nechipu, Seppa, Sagalee, Ziro, Daporijo, Aalong and terminating at Pasighat in the State of Arunachal Pradesh 1090
5. 52B Ext. Namchik, Changlang, Khonsa and Kanubari in the State of Arunachal Pradesh and terminating near Dibrugarh in the State of Assam, joining with approaches to Bogibeel bridge 450
6. 37 Ext. The NH No. 37 is extended from its dead near Saikhowaghat in Assam to join NH 52 near Roing in Arunachal Pradesh 60

 

Under the SARDP-NE roads covered for improvement is shown in the below map:

Fig: Arunachal Pradesh Road Network

Also, steep slopes and sharp gradient in water flow of Brahmaputra river, water transport is not feasible. Transport in Arunachal Pradesh is very difficult since, the state resides in the Himalayan range. A lot of steps have been taken by center and state government in developing the modes of transport.

Air :

Itanagar Airport, a Greenfield project serving Itanagar is being planned at Holongi at a cost of Rs. 6.50 billion.The existing state owned Daporijo Airport, Ziro Airport, Along Airport, Tezu Airport and Pasighat Airport are small and are not in operation. The government has proposed to operationalise these airports.Before the state was connected by roads, these airstrips were originally used for the transportation of food.

Railways:

Due to its rough terrain and difficult topography Railways are not much developed. Arunachal Pradesh got its first railway line in late 2013 with the opening of the new link line from Harmuti on the main Rangpara North-Murkongselak railway line to Naharlagun(Near to state capital Itanagar).

 

The construction of the 33 kilometre1,676 mmbroad gauge railway line was completed in 2012, and the link became operational after the gauge conversion of the main line under Project Unigauge. The state capital Itanagar was added to the Indian railway map on 12 April 2014 via the newly built 20 kilometreHarmuti-Naharlagun railway line, when a train from Dekargaon in Assam reached Naharlagun railway station, 10 kilometres from the centre of Itanagar, a total distance of 181 kilometres.On 20 February 2015 the first through train was run from New Delhi to Naharlagun, flagged off from the capital by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi. India plans to eventually extend the railway to Tawang, near the border with China.

 

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