| East-West Industrial Corridor Highway, Arunachal Pradesh | |
|---|---|
| Major junctions | |
| West end | Bhairabkunda in Udalguri district in Assam |
| East end | Ruksin in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh |
| Location | |
| Country | India |
| States | Arunachal Pradesh, Assam |
| Major cities | Bhairabkunda, Ruksin |
| Highway system | |
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 the lower foothills of Arunachal Pradesh state in India, from Bhairabkunda in Assam at the tri-junction of Bhutan-Assam-Arunachal Pradesh in the west to the Kanubari tri-junction of Nagaland-Assam-Arunachal Pradesh in the east. [1] [2] [3]
The Government of Arunachal Pradesh (GoAP) is responsible for preparing DPR which has planning, survey, environmental and land acquisition approvals as prerequisites. Once DPR is ready, these projects are granted approval by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). Some of these projects subsume the existing or under-construction roads constructed by BRO, NHAI, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), CPWD and other states of India or other nations. Hence, right from the inception, these projects require GoAP to facilitate coordinated efforts of multiple entities including MoRTH, NHAI, MoPSW, MoDNER, CPWD, state PWDs, BRO, MoD, NSA, Ministry of External Affairs (MoEA), and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). BJP-led Government of India (GoI) and GoAP were trying to expedite some of these projects. [4] Since some these are constructed by BRO, once the paved basic road has been constructed by BRO ideally these should be handed over to NHAI and state PWDs (with the status of NH and SH accessible to civilians) so that BRO can focus on its core activity of building newer strategic border roads in the inaccessible areas. This is not done always due to turf war by BRO and poor efforts (poor justification to MoD and poor overall coordination) by the concerned state govt, resulting in lack of connectivity optimisation and poor collective ROI for India. Hence, persistent efforts by GoAP and firm backing by GoI are key to success, timely completion and maximisation of ROI of these projects.
These major highways, spanning across the entire length of Arunachal Pradesh, are key to Arunachal Pradesh's development, India's national security and international Look East connectivity. [5]
Following either intersect with or synergetically enhance the wider connectivity of this highway.
Running through the foothills across at least 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh, it will serve as an industrial corridor for the people residing in the area. [2] [1] The 692.58 km will be constructed in phase I and II, [1] and remaining in phase III and IV as follows:
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. [8] [9]
Listed west to east.
The Bhalukpong-Bomdila-Tawang Tourist Circuit along the Arunachal Frontier Highway and the Nafra-Seppa-Pappu-Pasa-Pakke Valleys-Sangdupota-New Sagalee-Ziro-Yomcha Tourist Circuit along the Trans-Arunachal Highway and East-West Industrial Corridor Highway have been developed under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme. [10]