Arunachal Frontier Highway, also Mago-

Thingbu Thingbu is a settlement in Tawang district in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Location It is located on the proposed Mago-Thingbu to Vijaynagar Arunachal Pradesh Frontier Highway along the McMahon Line, alignment map ...

– Vijaynagar Border Highway, is a planned border highway in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n state of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

. The road follows the

McMahon Line The McMahon Line is the boundary between Tibet and British India as agreed in the maps and notes exchanged by the respective plenipotentiaries on 24–25 March 1914 at Delhi, as part of the 1914 Simla Convention. The line delimited the r ...

, the international border between India and China. The

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

estimates the cost at . The highway along the China border would accompany the

Trans-Arunachal Highway The Trans-Arunachal Highway (TAH), which includes an existing route comprising NH-13 () and parts of NH-15 (), NH-215 () and SH-25, is an under-construction 2-lane more than long highway passing through 16 districts in Arunachal Pradesh st ...

(through the middle) and the Arunachal East-West Corridor (in the foothills along the Assam border) as major highways spanning the whole state, pursuing the Look East connectivity concept.Arunachal Dy CM Lays Foundation Stone of Bridge over Bari River
, North East Today, 11 Dec 2017.

Route alignment

The high-altitude highway will originate from Mago-

Tawang district Tawang district (Pron:/tɑ:ˈwæŋ or təˈwæŋ/) is the smallest of the 26 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India. With a population of 49,977, it is the eighth least populous district in the country (out o ...

and meander through the following border areas of Arunachal Pradesh along the McMahon Line:

West Kameng district West Kameng (pronounced ) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It accounts for 8.86% of the total area of the state. The name is derived from the Kameng river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, that flows through the distric ...

;

East Kameng district East Kameng district is one of districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern, India. It shares an international border with China in the north and district borders with West Kameng district to the west, Pakke-Kessang district to the sou ...

; Upper Subansiri district; Mechuka in

West Siang district West Siang (Pron:/ˈsjæŋ or ˈsɪæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. History In 1989, territory was given from West Siang to the East Siang district. Since 1999, this territory has been in the new ...

; Tuting in

Upper Siang district Upper Siang (Pron:/ˈsjæŋ or ˈsɪæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is the fourth least populous district in the country (out of 640). History The majority of the people are of the Adi trib ...

;

Dibang Valley district Dibang Valley (Pron:/dɪˈbæŋ/) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh named after the Dibang River or the Talon as the Mishmis call it. It is the least populated district in India and has an area of . History In June 1980, Dibang Valley distr ...

;

Desali Desali is a village Panchayat in Hunli-Desali Tehsil of Lower Dibang Valley district in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Location It is located on the proposed Mago-Thingbu to Vijaynagar Arunachal Pradesh Frontier High ...

Lower Dibang Valley district The Lower Dibang Valley district (Pron:/dɪˈbæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It is the tenth least populous district in the country. History In June 1980, the Dibang Valley district ...

;

Chaglagam Chaglagam is a village and the headquarters of an eponymous circle in the Anjaw district in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is on the bank of the Delei River. The Chaglagam Circle contains the upper basin of the Delei R ...

, Kibithu, Dong and Hawai all in

Anjaw district Anjaw District (Pron:/ˈændʒɔ:/) (Burmese : အန်််ကျော) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India. It was created district in 2004, by splitting off from the Lohit district under the ...

; and end at Vijaynagar in Changlang district at the junction of Arunachal Pradesh,

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The map of alignment can be see
here
Also proposed is a 100 km long western spur from

Tawang Tawang is a town and administrative headquarter of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The town was once the capital of the Tawang Tract, which is now divided into the Tawang district and the West Kameng district. Tawan ...

Yongphulla Airport Yongphulla Airport (also known as Yonphula Airport) is a domestic airport in Bhutan, one of the country's four airports. It is located near Trashigang. History The airport was originally constructed by the Border Roads Organisation in the 1960 ...

in Bhutan (upgraded by India and jointly used by the Indian Army and Bhutan Army) in eastern Bhutan via Lumla-Yabab in India and Trashigang in Bhutan. The highway will intersect with the proposed East-West Industrial Corridor Highway in the foothills of

from

Bhairabkunda Bhairabkunda is a popular picnic spot in Udalguri district in the State of Assam, India. It is situated on the border of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, near the Bhutanese town of Daifam. The Jampani River, originating in Bhutan, and Bhairabi R ...

, the tri-junction of

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

and

to Ruksin in East Siang district. The highway will pass through the BCIM Economic Corridor proposed by the

Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation The Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM) is a proposed corridor connecting India and China through Myanmar and Bangladesh as a corridor. In 2015, China proposed including the corridor as part of its vision for the Be ...

(BCIM Forum), a multi-mode corridor that includes a highway from

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...

in India's

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

state to

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

in China's

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

province. As well as Arunachal Pradesh, the highway passes through the Indian states of

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

and

. The highway will cross the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary, which may raise environmental issues.

Six Inter-corridor highways

To providing missing interconnectivity between three horizontal national highways across Arunachal Pradesh - Frontier Highway, Trans-Arunachal Highway and East-West Industrial Corridor Highway - following six vertical and diagonal national highway corridors of total 2178 km length will be built, which will also provide faster access to geostrategically important areas on India-China LAC.Arunachal Pradesh: Inter-corridors between two highways proposed
Economic Times, 20 Oct 2022.Centre Clears Construction Of 6 Corridors In Arunachal Near China Border
NDTV, 20 Oct 2022. Listed west to east. * Thelamara-

- Nelia Highway: 402 km. * Itakhola-

Pakke-Kessang Pakke Kessang is a town in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is located in Pakke-Kessang district, which has been carved out of the East Kameng district along with five administrative units, namely Pakke Kessang, Seijosa, Pijerang, Passa ...

- Seppa- Parsi Parlo Highway: 391 km. * Gogamukh- Taliha- Tato Highway: 285 km. * Akajan- Jorging- Pango Highway: 398 km. *

Pasighat Pasighat is the headquarters of East Siang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Situated at the eastern foothills of the Himalayas at above mean sea level, Pasighat is Arunachal's oldest town. The Government of India included Pa ...

- Bishing Highway: 298 km. *

Kanubari Kanubari is a Tehsil in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Longding is the name of the district that contains Kanubari sub divisions ADC independent Kanubari is located towards East from District headquarters Longding. It is from State cap ...

Longding Longding district (Pron:/lɒŋˈdɪŋ/) is one of the 20 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It was carved out of the south-western portion of the Tirap District. The district shares its boundary to the south and ...

Highway: 404 km.

Current status

The

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is a ministry of the Government of India, that is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws relating to road transport, transport research and in als ...

identifies the highway as one of the 29 corridors close to the 3,600 km international border, which it proposes to undertake as a

National Highway Development Project The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was started in 1998 under the leadership of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Nationa ...

(NHDP), though there is "little habitation" along the proposed route and only "small stretches of minor roads". In 2013, the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

found that, of the 503 stretches on the borders to be completed by 2022, only 17 were complete, and work was is underway on just 50. Government, led by the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

, seeks to expedite these projects with the coordinated efforts of

Border Roads Organisation The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a road construction executive force in India that provides support to and is now a part of the Indian Armed Forces. BRO develops and maintains road networks in India's border areas and friendly neighboring ...

Ministry of Defence (India) The Ministry of Defence (MoD) (IAST: ''Rakshā Mantrālaya'') is charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Indian Armed Forces. The President of Indi ...

Government of Arunachal Pradesh The Government of Arunachal Pradesh also known as the State Government of Arunachal Pradesh, or locally as State Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and its 25 districts. It consists of an execu ...

, National Highways Development Project, Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region and National Security Advisor (India). In October 2014,

Kiren Rijiju Kiren Rijiju (born 19 November 1971) is an Indian politician from Arunachal Pradesh who serves as the Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice in the Government of India. Early life Rijiju was born on 19 November 1971 at Nakhu near Nafra in West K ...

, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs of India was trying to expedite the project as well as the proposed

East-West Industrial Corridor Highway, Arunachal Pradesh East-West Industrial Corridor Highway of Arunachal Pradesh, a 2-lane and 966.78 km long including existing 274.20 km Pasighat-Manmao route, is a proposed highway across lower foothills of Arunachal Pradesh state in India from Bhairabkunda in As ...

as he said "I am proposing to undertake this road along with another in the foothill areas of

state from

located at the tri-junction of

and

to Ruksin in East Siang district of

state which will serve as an industrial corridor for the people residing in the foothill areas of the state".

Rationales

Various sources in the

and media have mentioned the following reasons to build the highway: *That the highway will generate employment and increase tourism in these hard-to-reach areas. *That the highway will check Chinese incursions into Indian territory. China has built an extensive road and railway network on its side, posing a security risk to India as the region is relatively inaccessible on the Indian side.

References

{{Transport in India Proposed roads in India Proposed infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh Transport in Arunachal Pradesh Roads in Arunachal Pradesh Modi administration initiatives

Route alignment

Six Inter-corridor highways

Current status

Rationales

See also

References