This year, for instance, while heavy snowfall cut off several districts, including Tawang, for weeks, the ongoing monsoon has severed road links to almost every district. The Seppa-Sagalee road, which had remained cut off the whole of June, was severed again last week, while the Tezpur-Tawang road link has been snapped at least a dozen times in the past three months. Landslides — a common phenomenon in the loose soil of the Eastern Himalayas — have badly affected the capital town of Itanagar and the adjoining town Naharlagun, with at least 40 people getting killed in two months.

According to state Public Works Department Minister Nabam Tuki, at least 60 bridges, big and small, have been either washed away or damaged in the current monsoon. “In most cases, the approaches to the bridges and culverts have been washed away, and the total damage to roads and bridges under the PWD till now would be nothing less than Rs 300 crore,” said Tuki, recalling his footmarch, stretching over three days, to reach the state capital from his village near Sagalee last week.

The state Government has in the meantime prepared a 60-page report on the damage caused to roads and bridges by landslides and flashfloods in the current year. “The Chief Minister is sending this report to the Centre and seeking assistance to get the repair work done,” Tuki said.

Arunachal Pradesh had only in January this year got an announcement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for construction of a 1,840-km two-lane Trans-Arunachal Highway that would cost roughly about Rs 6,000 crore. The proposed highway is supposed to run from Tawang in the west to Khonsa in the east, touching every district of the largest state in the region. The PMGSY, too, has helped Arunachal Pradesh construct 838 km of roads in 2007-08, while 62 new roads, connecting as many villages to the main arterial roads, are also under construction, Tuki pointed out.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, meanwhile, has got the Centre’s approval for construction of a 2,951-km two-lane road under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) in two phases.

There was a time when the state had just a few hundred kilometers of roads. “With time, the total road length has registered a quantum jump. Roads after all are the only means in a state where there are no railways,” said Otem Dai, commissioner, public works. In fact, a large number of villages in the state have yet to get a road link with PDS items continuing to be carried in headloads to reach the common man.

But the most interesting case is that of Vijaynagar in Changlang district in eastern Arunachal: the township has a well-maintained airstrip that has a regular AN-32 service, but no car has ever reached the place because there is no road to Vijaynagar!